The Bible Led me to Islam

Bible Led

Abdul Malik
LeBlanc tells How He Discovered Islam Within the Pages of Bible

 Taken from International
Edition Voice of Islam

November 1998, Page 25

During my Christian days there were
many verses in the Bible that made me question the religion I was
following (Christianity). There was one particular verse, 1 Thessalonians
5:17 which says; "pray without ceasing," that lingered heavily in
my mind. I often wondered how a person (Christian) was supposed
to pray (be in a state of worship) without ceasing? Without any
biblical or divine guidance, the only way I thought this to be possible
was to always do good deeds and keep the remembrance of God on my
tongue and in my heart.

However, I found this to be impossible
to do as a human being. But when I was introduced to Islam in 1987,
and began to read and learn more about this way of life, I found
that Islam provided divine guidance both from God (Allah) and Prophet
Muhammad (SAW) by which a person could pray (be in a state of worship)
without ceasing, if it was the Will of God. 

Whether waking up, eating, sleeping,
putting on clothes, being in the presence of a woman, looking at
a woman, going shopping, going to the bathroom, looking in the mirror,
traveling, visiting the sick, sitting in a non-religious meeting,
taking a bath, having sexual intercourse with one’s wife, yawning,
cutting you nails, sneezing, greeting people, talking, hosting guests
at home, walking, exercising, fighting, entering one’s house, praying
and many other acts, Islam and the guidance therein of the Quran,
and the acts and sayings of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), provided ways
in which I could observe 1 Thessalonians 5:17. In addition, it allowed
me to be at peace with myself and in submission to the one True
God - Allah (SWT).  

This divine guidance of Islam taught
me greatly about my duties, responsibilities and birthright to my
Creator (Allah), and more about the religion of Christianity as
a Muslim, I [By the Will of Allah (SWT)] felt it necessary to share
with you how the Bible led me to Islam.

Christianity

Given the fact that there has never
been in the history of the Torah (Old Testament) the religion of
God to be named after a Prophet (i.e. Adaminity, Abrahamity, Mosanity,
etc.), I hope to explain that Jesus did not preach the religion
of Christianity, but a religion that gives all Praise and Worship
to The One God.

One of the questions I asked myself
as I took an objective (second) look at Christianity was; where
did the word Christianity come from and was the word ever mentioned
to Jesus? Well, I did not find the word Christianity in the Bible,
not even in a Bible dictionary. Specifically, I did not find in
the Bible where Jesus called himself a Christian. 

The word Christian was first mentioned
by a pagan to describe those who followed Jesus. It is mentioned
one of three times in the New Testament by a pagan and Jew in Antioch
about 43 AD, (Acts 11:26, Acts 26:38 and 1 Peter 4:16) long after
Jesus left this earth. To accept the words of pagans as having any
value or association with divinity, Jesus or God is contrary to
the teachings of all Prophets.  

Jesus prophesied that people would
worship him uselessly and believe in doctrines made by men (Matthew
15:9). 

"But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." This verse, Matthew
15:9, is further supported by these words of the Quran: 

"And (remember) when Allah will say
(on the Day of Resurrection): "O Jesus, son of Mary! Did you say
unto men: "Worship me and my mother as two gods besides Allah?"
He will say: "Glory be to You! It was not for me to say what I had
no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, You would surely have
known it. You know what is in my inner-self though I do not know
what is in Yours, truly, You, only You, are the All-Knower o fall
that is hidden and unseen. 

Never did I say to them aught except
what You (Allah) did command me to say: ‘Worship Allah, my Lord
and your Lord.’ And I was a witness over them while I dwelt amongst
them, but when You took me up, You were a Witness to all things.
(This is a great admonition and warning to the Christians of the
whole world)." (Al-Ma’idah 5:116-117) 

I found that Biblical verses like
John 5:30, John 12:49, John 14:28, Isaiah 42:8 and Acts 2:22 support
the above mentioned verses of the Quran. 

Before leaving the subject of Christianity,
I should mention one small point of observation. If Christians are
Christ-like, why are they not greeting each other with the words;
Peace be with you (Salamu Alaikum), as Jesus did in Luke 24:36.
As you may be aware, the greeting from one Muslim to another Muslim
is Assalamu Alaikum; a Christ-like saying.

Various Holy Bibles

It is worth mentioning that the Bible
references cited might not be exactly as the Bible you are using.
There are MANY Bibles on the market that are used by different Christian
sects and all of these sects say that their book, though different,
is the word of God. Such Bibles are: The Revised Standard Version
1952 & 1971, New American Standard Bible, The Holy Bible; New
International Version, the Living Bible, New World Translation of
the Holy Scriptures used by Jehovah Witnesses, Roman Catholic Version
and the King James Version. A special note: I have not found in
any of these Bibles where the "New Testament" calls itself the "New
Testament," and nowhere does the "Old Testament" call itself the
"Old? Testament." Also, the word "Bible" is unknown within the pages
of the Bible.

In addition to the many different
Christian sects and Bibles, I have learned that there are also different
men, not Prophets, who founded these sects and are using various
interpretations of the Bible and/or man-made doctrines as their
creed. 

I would like to share with you some
thoughts that you may not have read or known about the Bible being
the word of God. Briefly, let me mention that on September 8, 1957,
the Jehovah’s witnesses in their "Awake" magazine carried this startling
headline - 50,000 Errors in the Bible. If you ask a Jehovah’s witness
about this headline, it may be said that today most of those errors
have been eliminated. How many have been eliminated, 5,000? Even
if 50 remain, would one attribute those errors to God? 

Let me pose another question:
if a "Holy" book contained conflicting verses would you still consider
it to be Holy? Most likely you will say of course not. Let me share
with you some conflicting verses both in the Old and New Testaments:


 

 

 

II Samuel 8:4 (vs)	II Samuel 8:9-10	II Kings 8:26
II Samuel 6:23	Genesis 6:3	John 5:37
John 5:31	I Chronicles 18:4	I Chronicles 18:9-10
II Chronicles 22:2	II Samuel 21:8	Genesis 9:29
John 14:9	John 8:14

 

 

Only two contradictions of the New
Testament have been mentioned, but others will be referenced when
the Trinity, Divinity of Jesus Christ, Divine Sonship of Jesus,
Original Sin and Atonement are reviewed. 

How could the "inspired words" of
God get the genealogy of Jesus incorrect (See Matthew 1:6-16 where
it states 26 forefathers up to Prophet David, and Luke 3:23-31 says
41 in number). Or for that matter, give a genealogy to Jesus who
had NO father? See II Kings 19:1-37, now read Isaiah 37:1-38. Why
is it that the words of these verse are identical? Yet they have
been attributed to two different authors, one unknown and the other
is Isaiah, who are centuries apart; and yet, the Christians have
claimed these books to be inspired by God.  

I looked up the word Easter in the
Nelson Bible dictionary and learned that the word "Easter" (as mentioned
in Acts 12:4) is a mistranslation of "pascha," the ordinary Greek
word for "Passover." As, you know Passover is a Jewish celebration
not a Christian holiday. I think human hands, all to human, had
played havoc with the Bible. 

From the brief points mentioned above,
and the fact that Biblical scholars themselves have recognized the
human nature and human composition of the Bible (Curt Kuhl, The
Old Testament: Its Origin and Composition, PP 47, 51, 52), there
should exist in the Christian’s mind some acceptance to the fact
that maybe every word of the Bible is not God’s word. 

As a side note to this subject, let
me mention that some Christians believe that the Bible was dictated
to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) by a Christian monk, and that is why some
of the biblical accounts are in the Quran. After some research,
I found that this could not have happened because there were no
Arabic Bible in existence in the 6th century of the Christian era
when Muhammad (SAW) lived and preached. Therefore, no Arab, not
even Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who was absolutely unlettered and unlearned,
would have had the opportunity to examine the written text of the
Bible in his own language.

 

The Gospels

If you read Luke 1:2-3, you will
learn, as I did, that Luke (who was not one of the 12 disciples
and never met Jesus) said that he himself was not an eyewitness,
and the knowledge he gathered was from eyewitnesses, and not as
words inspired by God. Incidentally, why does every "Gospel" begin
with the introduction According to. Why "according to?" the reason
for this is because not a single one of the gospels carries its
original author’s autograph! Even the internal evidence of Matthew
9:9 proves that Matthew was not the author of the first Gospel which
bears his name:

"And as Jesus passed forth thence,
He (Jesus) saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom:
and He (Jesus) saith unto Him (Matthew), follow me (Jesus). And
he (Matthew) arose, and followed Him (Jesus)."

Without any stretch of the imagination,
one can see that the He’s and the Him’s of the above narration do
not refer to Jesus or Matthew as its author, but a third person
writing what he saw or heard - a hearsay account and not words inspired
by God. 

It is worth noting, and well known
throughout the religious world, that the choice of the present four
"gospels" of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were
imposed in the Council of Nicea 325 CE for political purposes under
the auspices of the pagan Emperor Constantine, and not by Jesus.
Constantine’s mind had not been enlightened either by study or by
inspiration. He was a pagan, a tyrant and criminal who murdered
his son, his wife and thousands of innocent individuals because
of his lust for political power. Constantine ratified other decisions
in the Nicene Creed such as the decision to call Christ "the Son
of God, only begotten of the father." 

Literally, hundreds of gospels and
religious writings were hidden from the people. Some of those writings
were written by Jesus’ disciples, and many of them were eyewitness
accounts of Jesus’ actions. The Nicea Council decided to destroy
all gospels written in Hebrew, which resulted in the burning of
nearly three hundred accounts. If these writings were not more authentic
than the four present gospels, they were of equal authenticity.
Some of them are still available such as the Gospel of Barnabas
and the Shepherd of Hermas which agree with the Quran. The Gospel
of Barnabas, until now, is the only eyewitness account of the life
and mission of Jesus. Even today, the whole of the Protestant word,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists and other sects and
denominations condemn the Roman Catholic version of the Bible because
it contains seven "extra" books. The Protestant have bravely expunged
seven whole books from their word of God. A few of the outcasts
are the Books of Judith, Tobnias, Baruch and Esther. 

Concerning Jesus’ teachings of the
Gospel (Injeel), the Gospel writers frequently mentioned Jesus preaching
the Gospel: Matthew 9:35, Mark 8:35, and Luke 20:1. The word "gospel"
is recurrently used in the Bible. However, in the New Testament
Greek edition the word Evangeline is used in place of the word gospel,
which is translated to mean good news. My question was: what Gospel
did Jesus preach? Of the 27 books of the New Testament, only a small
fraction can be accepted as the words of Jesus, and only of the
27 books are known to be attributed as the Gospel of Jesus. The
remaining 23 were supposedly written by Paul. Muslims do believe
that Jesus was given God’s "Good News." However, they do not recognized
the present four Gospels as the utterances of Jesus. 

The earliest Gospel is that of Mark’s
which was written about 60-75 AD. Mark was the son of Barnabas’s
sister. Matthew was a tax collector, a minor official who did not
travel around with Jesus. Luke’s Gospel was written much later,
and in fact, drawn from the same sources as Mark’s and Matthew’s.
Luke was Paul’s physician, and like Paul, never met Jesus. By the
way, did you know that the names Marks and Luke were not included
in the 12 appointed disciples of Jesus as mentioned in Matthew 10:2-4? 

Now the names of the twelve apostles
are these; the first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his
brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip,
and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son
of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the
Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. 

John’s Gospel is from a different
source, and was written in about 100 AD. He (John) should not be
confused with John, the disciple, who was beheaded by Agrippa I
in the year 44 CE long before this gospel was written. It should
be accepted as a reliable account of the life of Jesus, and whether
it should be included in the scriptures. 

Christians, as I once did, boast
about the Gospels according to Matthew, according to Mark, according
to Luke and according to John. However, if we think about it, there
is not a single Gospel according to Jesus himself. According to
the preface of the KJV (King James Version) new open Bible study
edition, the word "Gospel" was added (see below) to the original
titles, "According to John, according to Matthew, according to Luke
and according to Mark." 

The permission to call "According
to" writings the Gospel was not given by Jesus nor by any other
divine guidance. These writings; Matthew, Luke, Mark and John, were
never originally to be the Gospel. Therefore, Mark 1:1 can not be
a true statement that his writing is the gospel of Jesus.  

It should be mentioned that Muslims
must believe in all Divine scriptures in their original form, their
Prophets and making no distinction between them: The Suhuf (Abraham);
Torah (Moses); Psalms (David); Gospel - or the Injeel (Jesus); and
the Quran (Muhammad). It is clearly stated in the Quran 3:3 that
Allah sent down the Torah and the Gospel. However, none of these
scriptures remains in its original form now, except the Quran, which
was sent for all mankind everywhere and for all times. 

In addition to other
reasons why the Quran was sent to mankind, as mentioned in 18:4-5
it was sent to warn the Christians of a terrible punishment from
God if they cease not in saying: "Allah has begotten a son."

Muslims sincerely believe that everything
Jesus (May the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) preached
was from God; the Gospel (Injeel): The "good news" and the guidance
of God for the Children of Israel. There is no place mentioned in
the present four Gospels that Jesus wrote a single word of his Gospel,
nor is it mentioned that Jesus instructed anyone to do so. What
passes off, as the "Gospels" today are the works of third party
human hands. The Quran 2:79 says:

"And woe to those who write the book with their own hands and they
say: "This is from Allah (God)." To traffic with it for a miserable
price! So woe to them for what their hands do write, and woe to
them for what they earn thereby!"

 

 

Jesus As the Son of God

Is Jesus the Son of God?  Matthew
3:17 could be used by some Christians to support the divine Sonship
of Jesus.  If Matthew 3:17, "And Lo a voice for heaven, saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased," is used to support
divine Sonship, then there should be no other verse that contradicts
or gives equal divine Sonship to another person or persons in the
Old or New Testament. However, many references were found in the
Old and New Testaments that mentioned someone other than Jesus as
having a divine Sonship to God. See Exodus 4:22:

"Israel is my son, even my firstborn."
II Samuel 7:14 and I Chronicles 22:10: "...and he shall be my son
(Solomon)." Jeremiah 31:9: "...and Ephraim is my firstborn." Also,
Psalm 2:7. 

The word "Son" must not be accepted
literally because God addresses many of his chosen servants as son
and sons. The Jews have also claimed Ezra to be the Son of God.
The New Testament Greek words used for "son" (pias and paida, which
mean servant or son in the sense of servant) are translated as son
in reference to Jesus and as servant in reference to others in some
translations of the Bible. 

Further, the term "Father" as used
by Jesus corresponds more closely to the term Rabb, i.e. One who
nourishes and sustains, so that in Jesus’ doctrine, God is "Father"
– Nourisher and Sustainer – of all men. The New Testament also interprets
"son of God" to be mystical: "For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God." (Romans 8:14). This mystical
suggestion is further supported with Jesus being called the only
begotten Son of God. 

In Psalm 2:7, the Lord said to David:
 

"...Thou art my son: this day have
I begotten thee." 

Does this mean that God had two sons?
Jesus also said that God is not only his Father but also your Father
(Matthew 5:45, 48). Luke 3:38 says: 

"...Seth, which was the son of Adam,
which was the Son of God." 

Who is mentioned in Hebrews 7:3 as
like unto the Son of God? It is Melchisedec, King of Salem, as mentioned
in Hebrews 7:1. He (Melchisedec) is more unique than Jesus or Adam.
Why is he not preferred to be the Son of God? Moreover, Adam did
not have a mother or father, but was the first human being created
by God and in the likeness of God to exist in the Garden of Eden
and on earth. Wouldn’t this give more rights to Adam to be called
the Son of God in its truest meaning? 

I would like to share with you an
obvious contradiction between John 3:16, Luke 10:25-28 and Matthew
19:16-17. John 3:16 reads:  

"For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten, Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

Now let’s read Luke 10:25-28: 

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood
up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? He said unto him, what is written in the law? How
readest Thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And
he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and Thou shalt
live. 

These verses tell us that the inheritance
of eternal life is for anyone who believes and worships no other
God, but the One True God. Luke 10:25-28 agrees with Matthew 19:16-17
which says; 

"And behold, one came and said to
him (Jesus), Good teacher, what good things shall I do that I may
have eternal life? So he (Jesus) said to him, ‘Why do you call me
good? – No one is good but One that is, God. But if you want to
enter into eternal life, keep the commandments." 

There is no commandment that says
to worship Jesus, but there that tells us to worship God alone. 

In Luke 4:41, Jesus refused to be
called the Son of God by demons. Do you think that Jesus would rebuke
the demons, or anyone else for that matter, for telling the truth?
Unquestionably, no! Jesus rebuked the demons because they were saying
something false by calling him the Son of God. Also, if the demons
knew that Jesus was the Christ, for Jesus to shut them up because
they called him the Christ is a contradiction to Jesus’ mission. 

In Luke 9:20 & 21, Jesus said
unto his disciples: 

"But who say ye that I am? Peter
answered saying, "The Christ of God, and Jesus straightly charged
them and commanded them to tell no man that thing." 

Furthermore, verses like John 3:2,
John 6:14, John 7:40, Matthew 21:11, Luke 7:16 and 24:19 confirm
that Jesus accepted the title of teacher, Prophet and called himself
the son of man in Matthew 8:20, 12:40, 17:9 & 12, 26:24, Luke
9:26, 22:48, 22:69, and 24:7. The most conclusive verse that says
Jesus is the son (servant) of man is Mark 14:26 where Jesus is mentioning
the Day of Reckoning. Jesus specifically said we would see the son
of man, not the Son of God, sitting in the right hand of power,
and coming in the clouds of heaven. 

The act of begetting is a physical
act and such act is against God’s nature. The Qur’an 19:35 says:


 

"It is not befitting to (the majesty
of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! When He determines
a matter He only says to it "Be," and it is." (Maryam  19:35)

The teachings of Jesus as the Son
of God were not preached by Jesus nor accepted by Jesus, but were
taught by Paul as supported in Acts 9:20: 

"And straightway he preached Christ
in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God." 

Did Jesus ever claim to be God or
say, "Here am I, your God, worship me"? The answer is no. For there
is no single, unequivocal statement in the Bible whereby Jesus himself
declares, "I am God, therefore worship me." Virtually all of the
more than two thousand verses of the epistles of Paul are his own
fabrications to include Romans 9:5 that says, depending upon which
Bible you read: 

"...Christ came, who is overall,
the eternally blessed God." 

Christians should know that Paul
himself mentions his own gospel, not Jesus, in his epistle to the
Romans when he says in Romans 2:16: 

"In the day when God will judge the
secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." 

In face, the Pauline epistle to the
Romans serves as the foundation of today’s Christianity. Thus, it
is the Christians whose efforts will be wasted in this life as they
think they were acquiring good by their works when they attribute
partners to God, as stated in Chapter 18:103-106 of the Qur’an:


 

"Say: Shall we tell you of those
who lost most in respect of their deeds? Those whose efforts have
been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring
good by their works?" they are those who deny the Signs of their
Lord and the fact of their having to meet Him (in the Hereafter):
vain will be their works, nor shall We, on the Day of judgment,
give them any weight. That is their reward, Hell; because they rejected
Faith, and took My Signs and My Messengers by way of jest.

(Al-Kahf 18:103-106)

Indeed, it is so strange and ironic,
knowing that none of Paul’s epistle to the Romans, more than 430
verses, were ever formulated by Jesus. Paul should have made direct
reference to the pristine teachings of Jesus, if only the former
claim for apostleship by divine inspiration was indeed true. Instead,
large parts of his epistles’ Biblical quotations (notably those
in the Epistle to the Romans) were taken from the Old Testament
– Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, Psalms,
Proverbs, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Hosea. His epistles were, indeed a
product of tedious efforts, but that does not make Paul far better
than any of the other men who authored the Bible, nor does it make
him a Prophet.  

Other practices that were adopted
under Paul included the following: the Roman sun-day as the Christian
Sabbath; the traditional birthday of the Sun-god as the birthday
of Jesus; the emblem of the sun-god (the cross of light) to be the
emblem of Christians; and, the incorporation of all the ceremonies
which were performed at the Sun-god’s birthday celebrations. 

As I come to a close concerning the
position of Christ, I would like to ask my Christian reader bow
down and pray earnestly to God and ask Him to invoke His curse on
you, your wife, your sons, and your daughters if what you believe
about Christ (Christ is God, Son of God or part of a trinity of
God) are false. Likewise, I have learned that if you asked a Muslim
to earnestly pray to God to invoke His curse on him, his wife, his
sons, and his daughters if what he is saying about Christ (Prophet,
Messenger of God, A Word from God) are false, the Muslims are firm
in their faith knowing that Christ is not God, nor the Son of God
and nor part of a trinity of God. This exercise of asking God to
invoke His curse on you and your family may sound a bit cruel, but
it would prove two points: (1) you would know that you are on the
wrong path; and, (2) it would put you on the right path.

 

The Crucifixion and Atonement

A very significant event in the Christian
doctrine is the Crucifixion of Jesus. Before talking about the many
controversies surrounding the Crucifixion, it should be mentioned
that it was a gospel of Paul’s which professed the Crucifixion/Resurrection
of Jesus (II Timothy 2:8):

"Remember that Jesus Christ of the
seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel." 

In addition, the gospel of the resurrection
in Mark 16:9-20 was already removed from the text by gospel writers
in the 1952 edition of the Revised Standard Version and then, for
some reasons, restored in the 1971 edition. In many Bibles, if not
removed, it is printed in small print or between two brackets and
with commentary (See the Revised Standard Version, New American
Bible and New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures). 

The traditional biblical account
of Jesus’ Crucifixion is that he was arrested and crucified by the
orders and plans of the chief priest and Jewish elders. This account
was denied in the 1960’s by the highest Catholic Christian authority,
the Pope. He issued a statement in which he said the Jews had nothing
to do with Jesus’ Crucifixion. 

Did any one of the disciples or the
writers of the Gospel see the Crucifixion or the Resurrection? No!
In Mark 14:50, it says the disciples forsook Jesus and fled. Even
Peter forsook Jesus after the cock crowed three times as Jesus foretold: 

(Matthew 26:75) And Peter remembered
the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou
shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly. 

The most likely persons whom may
have witnessed this moment in Jesus’ life were Mary Magdalene, Mary
the mother of James and Joses, the mother of Zebedee’s children
and other women (Matthew 27:55-56). However, there is no statement
or account in the Gospels from those women as to what they saw or
heard. 

The disciple(s) found the sepulchre
where Jesus was laid down, empty, and made the conclusion that he
was resurrected because the disciples and other witnesses saw him
alive after the alleged Crucifixion. Nobody saw the moment he was
resurrected. Jesus himself stated that he did not die on the cross
in Luke 24:36-41, as explained in the following paragraphs. 

Early Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene
went to the sepulchre, which was empty. She saw somebody standing
who looked like a gardener. She recognized him after a conversation
to be Jesus and wanted to touch him. Jesus said (John 20:17): 

"Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended
to my Father..." 

Now read Luke 24:36-41: 

"And as they (disciples) thus spoke,
Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace
be unto you. But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed
that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are you
troubled? And why so thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands
and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me end see; for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus
spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet
believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here
any meat? And they gave him a piece of boiled fish and of a honeycomb.
And he took it, and did eat before them." 

Does a spiritual or dead body have
a need to eat food? Jesus eating of food was to prove to the disciples
that he was not a spirit, but rather, he was still alive and not
dead. 

Jesus being alive and not dead is
further supported in his own prophecy (Matthew 12:40): 

"For as Jonah was three days and
three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth." 

Did Jesus fulfill this miracle? Christians
would say "yes," because Jesus died and rose three days later according
to Luke 24:36 and Matthew 20:19, to name a few verses. However,
in line with the miracle of Jonah and according to the Bible, Jesus
only spent one day and two nights in the sepulchre, and not three
days and three nights as he prophesied. 

Jesus was put in the sepulchre just
before sunset on Friday (Good Friday) and was found missing before
sunrise on Sunday (Easter). If we were to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the time
frame a bit, one may say that Jesus spent three days in the earth,
but there is no way and I repeat, no way, that Jesus spent three
nights in the earth. We must not forget that the Gospels are explicit
in telling us that it was "before sunrise" on Sunday morning that
Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus and found it empty. 

Consequently, there are some inconsistencies
as to whether Jesus fulfilled his own prophecy. Whether he was actually
crucified, or if the day (Good Friday) of his alleged Crucifixion
is wrong. Another significant point to mention is that Jonah was
alive in the belly of the whale. The Christians says, Jesus was
dead in the belly of the earth/tomb, and this contradicts Jesus’
own prophecy. Jesus said (Luke 11:30): 

"As Jonah was...so shall the Son
of man be." 

If Jonah was alive, so was Jesus. 

One critical event that took place
before the alleged Crucifixion was the prayer of Jesus to God for
help. Luke 22:42: 

"Saying Father if thou be willing,
remove this cup (of death) from me: nevertheless not my will, but
thine be done."  

Jesus’ prayer not to die on the cross
was accepted by God according to Luke 22:43 and Hebrews 5:7. Therefore,
if all of Jesus’ prayer were accepted by God, including not to die
on the cross, how could he have died on the cross? 

In Matthew 27:46, it states that
while Jesus was on the cross, he said: 

"Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani (My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me?). 

If Jesus said these words, it represents
a blatant declaration of disbelief according to all theological
authorities. This is a great insult as such words could only come
from an unbeliever in God. Further, it is incredible that such words
should come from a Prophet of God, because God never breaks His
promise and His Prophets never complained against His promise, especially
when the Prophet’s mission is understood. It could be said that
whoever relates that this statement was said by a Prophet (Jesus),
is a disbeliever. 

Muslims believe, as the Qur’an states,
Jesus was not crucified. It was the intention of his enemies
to put him to death on the cross, but Allah saved him from their
plot. Qur’an 4:157:

"That they (Jews)
said boasting, "We killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the Messenger
of Allah, but they (Jews) killed him not, nor crucified him..."

Experiences of a Recently Converted Hindu Woman

Experiences of a Recently Converted Hindu Woman

My Experiences and How I Find that Islam does not Oppress Women"

by Sister Noor, University of Essex

I came from a purely Hindu family where we were always taught to regard ourselves (i.e. women) as beings who were eventually to be married off and have children and serve the husband-- whether he was kind or not. Other than this I found that there were a lot of things which really oppressed women, such as:

• If a woman was widowed, she would always have to wear a white sari (costume), eat vegetarian meals, cut her hair short, and never re-marry.
• The bride always had to pay the dowry (bridal money) to the husband's family.
• And the husband could ask for anything, irrespective of whether the bride would have difficulty giving it

Not only that, if after marriage she was not able to pay the full dowry she would be both emotionally and physically tortured, and could end up being a victim of "kitchen death" where the husband, or both the mother-in-law and the husband try to set fire to the wife while she is cooking or is in the kitchen, and try to make it look like an accidental death. More and more of these instances are taking place. The daughter of a friend of my own father's had the same fate last year!

In addition to all this, men in Hinduism are treated literally as among the gods. In one of the religious Hindu celebration, unmarried girls pray for and worship an idol representing a particular god (Shira) so that they may have husbands like him. Even my own mother had asked me to do this. This made me see that the Hindu religion which is based on superstitions and things that have no manifest proof (1), but were merely traditions which oppressed women could not be right.

Subsequently, when I came to England to study, I thought that at least this is a country which gives equal rights to men and women, and does not oppress them. We all have the freedom to do as we like, I thought. Well, as I started to meet people and make new friends, learn about this new society, and go to all the places my friends went to in order to "socialise" (bars, dance halls, ...etc.), I realised that this "equality" was not so true in practice as it was in theory.

Outwardly, women were seen to be given equal rights in education, work, and so forth, but in reality women were still oppressed in a different, more subtle way. When I went with my friends to those places they hung out at, I found everybody interested to talk to me and I thought that was normal. But it was only later that I realised how naive I was, and recognised what these people were really looking for. I soon began to feel uncomfortable, as if I was not myself: I had to dress in a certain way so that people would like me, and had to talk in a certain way to please them. I soon found that I was feeling more and more uncomfortable, less and less myself, yet I could not get out. Everybody was saying they were enjoying themselves, but I don't call this enjoying.

I think women in this way of life are oppressed; they have to dress in a certain way in order to please and appear more appealing, and also talk in a certain way so people like them. During this time I had not thought about Islam, even though I had some Muslim acquaintances. But I felt I really had to do something, to find something that I would be happy and secure with, and would feel respected with. Something to believe in that is the right belief, because everybody has a belief that they live according to. If having fun by getting off with other people is someone's belief, they do this. If making money is someone's belief, they do everything to achieve this. If they believe drinking is one way to enjoy life then they do it. But I feel all this leads to nowhere; no one is truly satisfied, and the respect women are looking for is diminishing in this way.

In these days of so called "society of equal rights", you are expected to have a boyfriend (or you're weird!) and to not be a virgin. So this is a form of oppression even though some women do not realise it.(2) When I came to Islam, it was obvious that I had finally found permanent security. A religion, a belief that was so complete and clear in every aspect of life. Many people have a misconception that Islam is an oppressive religion, where women are covered from head to toe, and are not allowed any freedom or rights. In fact, women in Islam are given more rights, and have been for the past 1400 years, compared to the only-recently rights given to non-Muslim women in some western and some other societies. But there are, even now, societies where women are still oppressed, as I mentioned earlier in relation to Hindu women.

Muslim women have the right to inheritance. They have the right to run their own trade and business. They have the full right to ownership, property, disposal over their wealth to which the husband has no right. They have the right to education, a right to refuse marriage as long as this refusal is according to reasonable and justifiable grounds. The Quran itself, which is the word of Allah, contains many verses commanding men to be kind to their wives and stressing the rights of women. Islam gives the right set of rules, because they are NOT made by men, but made by Allah; hence it is a perfect religion.

Quite often Muslim women are asked why they are covered from head to toe, and are told that this is oppression--it is not. In Islam, marriage is an important part of life, the making of the society. Therefore, a woman should not go around showing herself to everybody, only for her husband. Even the man is not allowed to show certain parts of his body to none but his wife. In addition, Allah has commanded Muslim women to cover themselves for their modesty:

"O prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) over their bodies (when outdoors). That is most convenient that they could be known as such (i.e. decent and chaste) and not molested." (Quran 33:59)

If we look around at any other society, we find that in the majority of cases women are attacked and molested because of how they are dressed. Another point I'd like to comment on is that the rules and regulation laid down in Islam by Allah (God) do not apply just to women but to men also. There is no intermingling and free-running between men and women for the benefit of both. Whatever Allah commands is right, wholesome, pure and beneficial to mankind; there is no doubt about that. A verse in the Quran explains this concept clearly:

"Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and protect their private parts (i.e. from indecency, illegal sexual acts); that will make for greater purity for them. And Allah is well aware of what they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and protect their privaate parts (from indecency, illegal sexual intercourse); and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments...." (Quran, surah "Al-Nur" 24:31)

When I put on my hijaab (veil), I was really happy to do it. In fact, I really want to do it. When I put on the hijaab, I felt a great sense of satisfaction and happiness. Satisfied that I had obeyed Allah’s command. And happy with the good and blessings that come with it. I have felt secure and protected. In fact people respect me more for it. I could really see the difference in behaviour towards me.

Finally, I'd like to say that I had accepted Islam not blindly, or under any compulsion. In the Quran itself there is a verse which says "there is no compulsion in religion" (3). I accepted Islam with conviction. I have seen, been there, done that, and seen both sides of the story. I know and have experienced what the other side is like, and I know that I have done the right thing. Islam does not oppress women, but rather Islam liberates them and gives them the respect they deserve. Islam is the religion Allah has chosen for the whole of mankind. Those who accept it are truly liberated from the chains and shackles of mankind whose ruling and legislating necessitates nothing but the oppression of one group by another and the exploitation and oppression of one sex by the other. This is not the case of Islam which truly liberated women and gave them an individuality not given by any other authority.

Sister Noor has been a muslim for over a year and a half and is currently in her second year of undergraduate study in the Department of Biology

Notes:

(1) In Islaam, strong emphasis is placed on proof and evidence. Superstition, conjecture and following the ways of ones ancestors is heavily censured. Allaah says:

{Say : Bring your proof if indeed you are truthful} {Baqarah 2:111} {Inform me with knowledge if indeed you are truthful} [An’aam 6:143] {And they do not possess any knowledge regarding it. They do nothing but follow conjecture and conjecture avails nothing against the Truth} [Najm 53:28] {And when it is said to them: ‘Follow that which Allaah has sent down’, they say: ‘Nay! We shall follow that which we found our fathers following} [Baqarah 2:170]

If the scientists among the non-muslims were to follow this advice and research objectively many of the rulings regarding women in Islam they would find that they are in perfect harmony with the biological/psychological knowledge they have arrived at regarding the nature of women. It is the reaction of the feminist movement to western hypocrisy that has led to the debasement of ‘perceived’ female roles in Islam. That is why most of what is portrayed regarding women in Islaam is pure conjecture and distortion, not fact and truth.

(2) This is where muslims consider the fallacy of the freedom and non-oppression of women lies. Under the name of ‘freedom’ women are told that they have complete automonomy to do as they wish. However, ‘do as they wish’ means that they are encouraged to conform to the trends and fashions that are set for them and imposed upon them by means of the media machine and by means of the multi-billion dollar film industry which makes, fashions, and nurtures the ideas of people and their principles, morals and conduct. As a result they are made the objects of the fantasies of menwho harass them, oppress them and reduce them to nothing but a source of temporary joy and pleasure. Men themselves have been made to let loose the reins of their desires due to the high exposure to naked women they receive, day in day out. This results in provocation, frustration and eventually - a deserving punishment - desensitization. Impotence is a widespread ‘disease’ in the West! This is the position of women in the west. The mere mention of the words sexual harrasment, date-rape - which includes men deliberately getting women tipsy or drunk so that they can have their way with them - and slogans such as NO MEANS NO are sufficient as proof for this reality of the oppression of women in the west. These problems are unknown to the muslim world and are not issues in Islaam.

Melissa's Journey to Islam

Melissa's Journey to Islam - New Zealand

Bismillahi Rahmaani Raheem.

Asalaam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,

My name is Melissa. I originate from New Zealand, of Maori and European decent.

I perhaps wasn’t born into the conventional family full of love and warm fuzzies; still it was classed as a family. I barely recall much of my younger years but do remember some things that come and go as faded fleeting cloudy patches. My father was extremely abusive and my mother was extremely elusive of the fact that children thrive on healthy attention. It has taken me years of self therapy to wave goodbye to my childhood and with the help of Allah and good supportive friends both Muslimah and non Muslim I have Alhamdulillaah over come the pain of the past which has allowed me to pave the way for my future.

At the age of 9 years my parents divorced and my mother, 2 brothers and my self migrated to Australia where we resided until 1996. We lived mainly in Suburban Sydney. During our years in Sydney I made friends with many people from many different nationalities.

My mother worked nightshifts part of the week and we were left with baby sitters. I remember one from Lebanon, of course at that age I knew nothing about Islam or Muslims.

We shifted to Hurstville, Sydney, where I attended a primary school and befriended a lot of girls from Iraq, Lebanon and other Eastern Europe nationalities; I was very close to one in particular named Maymoona. She was from Lebanon and just so happened to live next to us.

Her parents owned a Mediterranean Food Outlet and used to bring Kibbeh, Falafels and other goodies home and share with us. Her grandparents lived next door to them but were Lebanese Christians. Maymoonas mother had reverted to Islam. May had 2 brothers and 4 sisters. It was actually a very memorable time in my childhood. May’s grandparents grew grapes and would gather up all of the children and throw the grapes in to a large wooden barrel and tell us to jump all over them. At the time I didn’t understand we were making wine for them. May loved avocados on toast and we ate it each and every Saturday morning or when we had sleep over’s. None of the sisters wore hijaab but their mother wore a pristine white hijaab. We had a park where Arabs and Yugoslavians played Soccer next to our house. May and I would play there together each day after school. Despite it appearing to be a perfect family setting, it was anything but. Her father was very abusive towards her mother which only caused us to bond more closely as we found such a painful experience to be something we had in common.

My mother for some reason or another moved us into a Seventh Day Adventist School where I was in the Choir. We later moved and I attended another Primary school that had many Muslim girls in hijaab attending. We had 3 in our class and we used to play during our lunch breaks. I never really paid much attention to the fact they were very different from myself. Primary school years past and High School started. I never saw another hijaabi that I remember.

We moved to the Western Plains of Australia in the small town of Coonabarabran. My mother had decided she would forsake city life for the self sufficient life style of an organic farm. We had no power, except by generator, no running water and the nearest main road was 12kms from our front door. Life was very frugal in many ways and much neglected. I had suffered abuse at the hands of my mother’s partner and had often contemplated suicide as a means to make it stop. I never thought about religion much as my Mother is Wiccan and I had learnt such things from her by watching more so then actual lessons. Still I believed in God, but was unclear on what God actually was, but never thought to further examine the topic.

At the age of 16 we returned to New Zealand. My relationship with my mother was very volatile and fragile. We locked heads together more often then I care to remember, almost on all topics. When we arrived in New Zealand I found a job with some family who owned Kiwifruit Pack Houses so I started to work and save with intention of moving back to Australia to be with my friends. I did save enough to become a WOOFI (Workers of Organic Farming) and traveled to Childers, Queensland in Australia. I ran into trouble as my savings dwindled and I was left alone at the age of 16 in an area I was fully out of my element. I was homeless in Brisbane and ended up begging my mother to help me back to New Zealand. Upon returning to New Zealand I ended up moving out of home and in with friends and fell in with the wrong crowd that I met during a Conservation Course I attended in a small rural town. I started to consume alcohol and became dependant on Marijuana which I consumed daily. I eventually moved to my home city of Tauranga, Bay of Plenty where I snagged a full time job packing Kiwifruit. I came into contact with many women from Somalia. They worked in picking Kiwifruit but we stayed in a workers caravan park together. I kept to myself and just wanted to blend into the background and b unseen. But to no avail. I later met one Somali woman who was very friendly, invited me to sit and eat with her. My interest grew as to why she wore a scarf on her head. I started to ask more in depth questions and her answers were very enticing and insightful. So much that it helped me to reflect on my past, assess my present and hope for my future. I was currently fighting a drug addiction, had no real friends or family and my life was going downhill and if I didn’t get a hold of the situation it would soon spiral out of control. The more I asked the Somali woman the more I was intrigued, the more I thirsted for information.

I admired the lifestyle of the Muslimah’s around me, the closeness, the bond between each other, the respect they held for all they came into contact with. Despite not being educated in New Zealand they yielded vast amounts of knowledge on such a broad scale.

My 17th birthday was dawning upon me and I had made the conscious decision to enter Al Islam. I was invited by a group of Muslims to travel to another city, Wellington, where another world was opened up to me. I decided in Ramadan I would revert and adopt Islam as my chosen religion. The morning of January 14th 1996 was a pleasantly warm morning and middle of summer. I made my way towards the Islamic Centre in Wellington, where I would perform my Shahadah. I didn’t understand the process 100% as I didn’t speak Arabic so was prompted to repeat after the Imaam the words:

“La ila ha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah”

I was given a Qu’raan with full Tafsir to read during Ramadan I was taken to visit some Muslimah’s. It was in that visit that I received my first hijaab, Turkish style, and black satin with grey and cream roses on it, I still have it till this day. Invitations to attend Iftaar flooded in from all directions, it was surreal but welcoming. I embraced, and soaked up much of the religion and environment I could from those around me. If I were to describe the feeling I felt once I reverted I would have to equal it to the rush of adrenaline felt when holding a child for the first time after giving birth, its indescribable, intense, exhilarating yet frightening. I loved everything about Islam; I loved the Muslim culture, dressing as an act of Ibadaah to Allah, to our husbands, to our selves.

I was advised to marry shortly after my reversion as it would complete half my Deen. I married in 1996, children soon followed alhumdulillah. Although the marriage did seize, it produced four beautiful Muslims. Along the way I have met many beautiful Muslims, rich in Islamic knowledge, rich in brotherhood, rich in faith and honesty.

I have thrived amongst such people and cultivated many productive relationships. I learn each day from those with greater knowledge then myself and Insha'Alah khair hope others can learn from me also. Despite the obstacles put in the way of the Muslim Ummah, Islam is strong and will prevail; many pious leaders will arise from the next generation of Mu’mineen, our children, and insha'alah khair we will all strive to stay on the path of the righteous.

Former Christian Priests and Missionaries who have Embraced Islam

Former Christian Priests and Missionaries who have Embraced Islam

And thou wilt find
the nearest of them in affection to those who believe (to
be) those who say: Lo! We are Christians. That is because
there are among them priests and monks, and because they
are not proud. When they listen to that which hath been
revealed unto the messengers,  thou seest their eyes
overflow with tears because of their recognition of the
Truth.

 

 

They say: Our Lord,
we believe. Inscribe us as among the witnesses

 

[Qur'an 5:82-83]

Why
are Christian priests and missionaries embracing Islam ?
Join our discussion board and share your views ! You can find many
converts from Christianity to Islam there, as well as Christians
who are learning more about Islam. If you are a former Christian
priest or missionary who has embraced Islam, please email your testimony
to us at mifo@missionislam.com

• Dr. Jerald F. Dirks - Former
  minister (deacon) of the United Methodist Church. He holds a Master's
  degree in Divinity from Harvard University and a Doctorate in
  Psychology from the University of Denver. Author of The Cross
  and the Crescent: An Interfaith Dialogue between Christianity
  and Islam (ISBN 1-59008-002-5 - Amana Publications, 2001).
  He has published over 60 articles in the field of clinical psychology,
  and over 150 articles on Arabian horses
• Abdullah al-Faruq - Formerly
  Kenneth L. Jenkins, minister and elder of the Pentecostal Church
  
• Viacheslav Polosin - Former
  Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church
• Anselm Tormeeda - 14th century
  CE scholar and priest
• Khadijah 'Sue' Watson - Former
  pastor, missionary, professor. Master's degree in Divinity
• Ibrahim Khalil - Former Egyptian
  Coptic priest
• Anonymous Female Missionary
  - Former Catholic missionary
• Martin John Mwaipopo - Former
  Lutheran Archbishop
• Raphael - Former Jehovah's
  Witness minister
• George Anthony - Former Catholic
  priest
• Dr. Gary Miller (Abdul-Ahad
  Omar) - Former missionary

Dr. Jerald F. Dirks
- Former minister (deacon) of the United Methodist Church. He holds
a Master's degree in Divinity from Harvard University and a Doctorate
in Psychology from the University of Denver. Author of The Cross
and the Crescent: An Interfaith Dialogue between Christianity and
Islam (ISBN 1-59008-002-5 - Amana Publications, 2001).
He has published over 60 articles in the field of clinical psychology,
and over 150 articles on Arabian horses

A CHRISTIAN
MINISTER’S CONVERSION TO ISLAM

© 2002 (Abu Yahya) Jerald
F. Dirks, M.Div., Psy.D.

One of my earliest
childhood memories is of hearing the church bell toll for Sunday
morning worship in the small, rural town in which I was raised. 
The Methodist Church was an old, wooden structure with a bell tower,
two children’s Sunday School classrooms cubbyholed behind folding,
wooden doors to separate it from the sanctuary, and a choir loft
that housed the Sunday school classrooms for the older children. 
It stood less than two blocks from my home.  As the bell rang,
we would come together as a family, and make our weekly pilgrimage
to the church. 

In that rural setting
from the 1950s, the three churches in the town of about 500 were
the center of community life.  The local Methodist Church,
to which my family belonged, sponsored ice cream socials with hand-cranked,
homemade ice cream, chicken potpie dinners, and corn roasts. 
My family and I were always involved in all three, but each came
only once a year.  In addition, there was a two-week community
Bible school every June, and I was a regular attendee
through my eighth grade year in school.  However, Sunday morning
worship and Sunday school were weekly events, and I strove to keep
extending my collection of perfect attendance pins and of awards
for memorizing Bible verses. 

By my junior high
school days, the local Methodist Church had closed, and we were
attending the Methodist Church in the neighbouring town, which was
only slightly larger than the town in which I lived.  There,
my thoughts first began to focus on the ministry as a personal calling. 
I became active in the Methodist Youth Fellowship, and eventually
served as both a district and a conference officer.  I also
became the regular “preacher” during the annual Youth Sunday service. 
My preaching began to draw community-wide attention, and before
long I was occasionally filling pulpits at other churches, at a
nursing home, and at various church-affiliated youth and ladies
groups, where I typically set attendance records.

By age 17, when I
began my freshman year at Harvard College, my decision to enter
the ministry had solidified.  During my freshman year, I enrolled
in a two-semester course in comparative religion, which was taught
by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, whose specific area of expertise was
Islam.  During that course, I gave far less attention to Islam,
than I did to other religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, as
the latter two seemed so much more esoteric and strange to me. 
In contrast, Islam appeared to be somewhat similar to my own Christianity. 
As such, I didn’t concentrate on it as much as I probably should
have, although I can remember writing a term paper for the course
on the concept of revelation in the Qur’an. 
Nonetheless, as the course was one of rigorous academic standards
and demands, I did acquire a small library of about a half dozen
books on Islam, all of which were written by non-Muslims, and all
of which were to serve me in good stead 25 years later.  I
also acquired two different English translations of the meaning
of the Qur’an, which I read at the time.

That spring, Harvard named me a Hollis Scholar, signifying
that I was one of the top pre-theology students in the college. 
The summer between my freshman and sophomore years at Harvard, I worked
as a youth minister at a fairly large United Methodist Church. 
The following summer, I obtained my License to Preach from the United
Methodist Church.  Upon graduating from Harvard College in 1971,
I enrolled at the Harvard Divinity School, and there obtained my Master
of Divinity degree in 1974, having been previously ordained into the
Deaconate of the United Methodist Church in 1972, and having previously
received a Stewart Scholarship from the United Methodist Church as
a supplement to my Harvard Divinity School scholarships.  During
my seminary education, I also completed a two-year externship program
as a hospital chaplain at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. 
Following graduation from Harvard Divinity School, I spent the summer
as the minister of two United Methodist churches in rural Kansas,
where attendance soared to heights not seen in those churches for
several years.

Seen from the outside, I was a very
promising young minister, who had received an excellent education,
drew large crowds to the Sunday morning worship service, and had
been successful at every stop along the ministerial path. 
However, seen from the inside, I was fighting a constant war to
maintain my personal integrity in the face of my ministerial responsibilities. 
This war was far removed from the ones presumably fought by some
later televangelists in unsuccessfully trying to maintain personal
sexual morality.  Likewise, it was a far different war than
those fought by the headline-grabbing paedophilic priests of the
current moment.   However, my struggle to maintain personal
integrity may be the most common one encountered by the better-educated
members of the ministry.

There is some irony in the fact that
the supposedly best, brightest, and most idealistic of ministers-to-be
are selected for the very best of seminary education, e.g. that
offered at that time at the Harvard Divinity School.  The irony
is that, given such an education, the seminarian is exposed to as
much of the actual historical truth as is known about:  1)
the formation of the early, “mainstream” church, and how it was
shaped by geopolitical considerations; 2) the “original” reading
of various Biblical texts, many of which are in sharp contrast to
what most Christians read when they pick up their Bible,
although gradually some of this information is being incorporated
into newer and better translations; 3) the evolution of such concepts
as a triune godhead and the “sonship” of Jesus, peace be upon him;
4) the non-religious considerations that underlie many Christian
creeds and doctrines; 5) the existence of those early churches and
Christian movements which never accepted the concept of a triune
godhead, and which never accepted the concept of the divinity of
Jesus, peace be upon him; and 6) etc.  (Some of these fruits
of my seminary education are recounted in more detail in my recent
book, The Cross and the Crescent:  An Interfaith Dialogue
between Christianity and Islam, Amana Publications, 2001.)

As such, it is no real wonder that
almost a majority of such seminary graduates leave seminary, not
to “fill pulpits”, where they would be asked to preach that which
they know is not true, but to enter the various counselling professions. 
Such was also the case for me, as I went on to earn a master’s and
doctorate in clinical psychology.  I continued to call myself
a Christian, because that was a needed bit of self-identity, and
because I was, after all, an ordained minister, even though my full
time job was as a mental health professional.  However, my
seminary education had taken care of any belief I might have had
regarding a triune godhead or the divinity of Jesus, peace be upon
him.  (Polls regularly reveal that ministers are less likely
to believe these and other dogmas of the church than are the laity
they serve, with ministers more likely to understand such terms
as “son of God” metaphorically, while their parishioners understand
it literally.)  I thus became a “Christmas and Easter Christian”,
attending church very sporadically, and then gritting my teeth and
biting my tongue as I listened to sermons espousing that which I
knew was not the case.

None of the above should be taken to
imply that I was any less religious or spiritually oriented than
I had once been.  I prayed regularly, my belief in a supreme
deity remained solid and secure, and I conducted my personal life
in line with the ethics I had once been taught in church and Sunday
school.  I simply knew better than to buy into the man-made
dogmas and articles of faith of the organized church, which were
so heavily laden with the pagan influences, polytheistic notions,
and geo-political considerations of a bygone era.

As the years passed by, I became increasingly
concerned about the loss of religiousness in American society at
large.  Religiousness is a living, breathing spirituality and
morality within individuals, and should not be confused with religiosity,
which is concerned with the rites, rituals, and formalized creeds
of some organized entity, e.g. the church.  American culture
increasingly appeared to have lost its moral and religious compass. 
Two out of every three marriages ended in divorce; violence was
becoming an increasingly inherent part of our schools and our roads;
self-responsibility was on the wane; self-discipline was being submerged
by a “if it feels good, do it” morality; various Christian leaders
and institutions were being swamped by sexual and financial scandals;
and emotions justified behaviour, however odious it might be. 
American culture was becoming a morally bankrupt institution, and
I was feeling quite alone in my personal religious vigil.

It was at this juncture that I began
to come into contact with the local Muslim community.  For
some years before, my wife and I had been actively involved in doing
research on the history of the Arabian horse.  Eventually,
in order to secure translations of various Arabic documents, this
research brought us into contact with Arab Americans who happened
to be Muslims.  Our first such contact was with Jamal in the
summer of 1991.

After an initial telephone conversation,
Jamal visited our home, and offered to do some translations for
us, and to help guide us through the history of the Arabian horse
in the Middle East.  Before Jamal left that afternoon, he asked
if he might:  use our bathroom to wash before saying his scheduled
prayers; and borrow a piece of newspaper to use as a prayer rug,
so he could say his scheduled prayers before leaving our house. 
We, of course, obliged, but wondered if there was something more
appropriate that we could give him to use than a newspaper. 
Without our ever realizing it at the time, Jamal was practicing
a very beautiful form of Dawa (preaching or exhortation). 
He made no comment about the fact that we were not Muslims, and
he didn’t preach anything to us about his religious beliefs. 
He “merely” presented us with his example, an example that spoke
volumes, if one were willing to be receptive to the lesson.

Over the next
16 months, contact with Jamal slowly increased in frequency, until
it was occurring on a biweekly to weekly basis.  During these
visits, Jamal never preached to me about Islam, never questioned
me about my own religious beliefs or convictions, and never verbally
suggested that I become a Muslim.  However, I was beginning
to learn a lot.  First, there was the constant behavioural
example of Jamal observing his scheduled prayers.  Second,
there was the behavioural example of how Jamal conducted his daily
life in a highly moral and ethical manner, both in his business
world and in his social world.  Third, there was the behavioural
example of how Jamal interacted with his two children.  For
my wife, Jamal’s wife provided a similar example.  Fourth,
always within the framework of helping me to understand Arabian
horse history in the Middle East, Jamal began to share with me: 
1) stories from Arab and Islamic history; 2) sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon him; and 3) Qur’anic verses and their contextual
meaning.  In point of fact, our every visit now included at
least a 30 minute conversation cantered on some aspect of Islam,
but always presented in terms of helping me intellectually understand
the Islamic context of Arabian horse history.  I was never
told “this is the way things are”, I was merely told “this is what
Muslims typically believe”.  Since I wasn’t being “preached
to”, and since Jamal never inquired as to my own beliefs, I didn’t
need to bother attempting to justify my own position.  It was
all handled as an intellectual exercise, not as proselytising.

Gradually, Jamal began to introduce us
to other Arab families in the local Muslim community.  There
was Wa’el and his family, Khalid and his family, and a few others. 
Consistently, I observed individuals and families who were living
their lives on a much higher ethical plane than the American society
in which we were all embedded.  Maybe there was something to
the practice of Islam that I had missed during my collegiate and seminary
days.

By December, 1992, I was beginning
to ask myself some serious questions about where I was and what
I was doing.  These questions were prompted by the following
considerations.  1) Over the course of the prior 16 months,
our social life had become increasingly centered on the Arab component
of the local Muslim community.  By December, probably 75% of
our social life was being spent with Arab Muslims.  2) By virtue
of my seminary training and education, I knew how badly the Bible
had been corrupted (and often knew exactly when, where, and why),
I had no belief in any triune godhead, and I had no belief in anything
more than a metaphorical “sonship” of Jesus, peace be upon him. 
In short, while I certainly believed in God, I was as strict a monotheist
as my Muslim friends.  3) My personal values and sense of morality
were much more in keeping with my Muslim friends than with the “Christian”
society around me.  After all, I had the non-confrontational
examples of Jamal, Khalid, and Wa’el as illustrations.  In
short, my nostalgic yearning for the type of community in which
I had been raised was finding gratification in the Muslim community. 
American society might be morally bankrupt, but that did not appear
to be the case for that part of the Muslim community with which
I had had contact.  Marriages were stable, spouses were committed
to each other, and honesty, integrity, self-responsibility, and
family values were emphasized.  My wife and I had attempted
to live our lives that same way, but for several years I had felt
that we were doing so in the context of a moral vacuum.  The
Muslim community appeared to be different.

The different threads
were being woven together into a single strand.  Arabian horses,
my childhood upbringing, my foray into the Christian ministry and
my seminary education, my nostalgic yearnings for a moral society,
and my contact with the Muslim community were becoming intricately
intertwined.  My self-questioning came to a head when I finally
got around to asking myself exactly what separated me from the beliefs
of my Muslim friends.  I suppose that I could have raised that
question with Jamal or with Khalid, but I wasn’t ready to take that
step.  I had never discussed my own religious beliefs with
them, and I didn’t think that I wanted to introduce that topic of
conversation into our friendship.  As such, I began to pull
off the bookshelf all the books on Islam that I had acquired in
my collegiate and seminary days.  However far my own beliefs
were from the traditional position of the church, and however seldom
I actually attended church, I still identified myself as being a
Christian, and so I turned to the works of Western scholars. 
That month of December, I read half a dozen or so books on Islam
by Western scholars, including one biography of the Prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him.  Further, I began to read two different
English translations of the meaning of the Qur’an. 
I never spoke to my Muslim friends about this personal quest of
self-discovery.  I never mentioned what types of books I was
reading, nor ever spoke about why I was reading these books. 
However, occasionally I would run a very circumscribed question
past one of them.  

While I never spoke
to my Muslim friends about those books, my wife and I had numerous
conversations about what I was reading.  By the last week of
December of 1992, I was forced to admit to myself, that I could
find no area of substantial disagreement between my own religious
beliefs and the general tenets of Islam.  While I was ready
to acknowledge that Muhammad, peace be upon him, was a prophet of
(one who spoke for or under the inspiration of) God, and while I
had absolutely no difficulty affirming that there was no god besides
God/Allah, glorified and exalted is He, I was still hesitating to
make any decision.  I could readily admit to myself that I
had far more in common with Islamic beliefs as I then understood
them, than I did with the traditional Christianity of the organized
church.  I knew only too well that I could easily confirm from
my seminary training and education most of what the Qur’an
had to say about Christianity, the Bible, and Jesus,
peace be upon him.  Nonetheless, I hesitated.  Further,
I rationalized my hesitation by maintaining to myself that I really
didn’t know the nitty-gritty details of Islam, and that my areas
of agreement were confined to general concepts.  As such, I
continued to read, and then to re-read.

One’s sense of identity,
of who one is, is a powerful affirmation of one’s own position in
the cosmos.  In my professional practice, I had occasionally
been called upon to treat certain addictive disorders, ranging from
smoking, to alcoholism, to drug abuse.  As a clinician, I knew
that the basic physical addiction had to be overcome to create the
initial abstinence.  That was the easy part of treatment. 
As Mark Twain once said:  “Quitting smoking is easy; I’ve done
it hundreds of times”.  However, I also knew that the key to
maintaining that abstinence over an extended time period was overcoming
the client’s psychological addiction, which was heavily grounded
in the client’s basic sense of identity, i.e. the client identified
to himself that he was “a smoker”, or that he was “a drinker”, etc. 
The addictive behaviour had become part and parcel of the client’s
basic sense of identity, of the client’s basic sense of self. 
Changing this sense of identity was crucial to the maintenance of
the psychotherapeutic “cure”.  This was the difficult part
of treatment.  Changing one’s basic sense of identity is a
most difficult task.  One’s psyche tends to cling to the old
and familiar, which seem more psychologically comfortable and secure
than the new and unfamiliar. 

On a professional basis,
I had the above knowledge, and used it on a daily basis.  However,
ironically enough, I was not yet ready to apply it to myself, and
to the issue of my own hesitation surrounding my religious identity. 
For 43 years, my religious identity had been neatly labeled as “Christian”,
however many qualifications I might have added to that term over
the years.  Giving up that label of personal identity was no
easy task.  It was part and parcel of how I defined my very
being.  Given the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that my
hesitation served the purpose of insuring that I could keep my familiar
religious identity of being a Christian, although a Christian who
believed like a Muslim believed.

It was now the very
end of December, and my wife and I were filling out our application
forms for U.S. passports, so that a proposed Middle Eastern journey
could become a reality.  One of the questions had to do with
religious affiliation.  I didn’t even think about it, and automatically
fell back on the old and familiar, as I penned in “Christian”. 
It was easy, it was familiar, and it was comfortable.

However, that comfort
was momentarily disrupted when my wife asked me how I had answered
the question on religious identity on the application form. 
I immediately replied, “Christian”, and chuckled audibly. 
Now, one of Freud’s contributions to the understanding of the human
psyche was his realization that laughter is often a release of psychological
tension.  However wrong Freud may have been in many aspects
of his theory of psychosexual development, his insights into laughter
were quite on target.  I had laughed!  What was this psychological
tension that I had need to release through the medium of laughter?

I then hurriedly went
on to offer my wife a brief affirmation that I was a Christian,
not a Muslim.  In response to which, she politely informed
me that she was merely asking whether I had written “Christian”,
or “Protestant”, or “Methodist”.  On a professional basis,
I knew that a person does not defend himself against an accusation
that hasn’t been made.  (If, in the course of a session of
psychotherapy, my client blurted out, “I’m not angry about that”,
and I hadn’t even broached the topic of anger, it was clear that
my client was feeling the need to defend himself against a charge
that his own unconscious was making.  In short, he really was
angry, but he wasn’t ready to admit it or to deal with it.) 
If my wife hadn’t made the accusation, i.e. “you are a Muslim”,
then the accusation had to have come from my own unconscious, as
I was the only other person present.  I was aware of this,
but still I hesitated.  The religious label that had been stuck
to my sense of identity for 43 years was not going to come off easily.        

About a month had gone
by since my wife’s question to me.  It was now late in January
of 1993.  I had set aside all the books on Islam by the Western
scholars, as I had read them all thoroughly.  The two English
translations of the meaning of the Qur’an were back
on the bookshelf, and I was busy reading yet a third English translation
of the meaning of the Qur’an.  Maybe in this
translation I would find some sudden justification for…

I was taking my lunch
hour from my private practice at a local Arab restaurant that I
had started to frequent.  I entered as usual, seated myself
at a small table, and opened my third English translation of the
meaning of the Qur’an to where I had left off in my
reading.  I figured I might as well get some reading done over
my lunch hour.  Moments later, I became aware that Mahmoud
was at my shoulder, and waiting to take my order.  He glanced
at what I was reading, but said nothing about it.  My order
taken, I returned to the solitude of my reading.

A few minutes later,
Mahmoud’s wife, Iman, an American Muslim, who wore the Hijab (scarf)
and modest dress that I had come to associate with female Muslims,
brought me my order.  She commented that I was reading the
Qur’an, and politely asked if I were a Muslim. 
The word was out of my mouth before it could be modified by any
social etiquette or politeness:  “No!”  That single word
was said forcefully, and with more than a hint of irritability. 
With that, Iman politely retired from my table.

What was happening
to me?  I had behaved rudely and somewhat aggressively. 
What had this woman done to deserve such behaviour from me? 
This wasn’t like me.  Given my childhood upbringing, I still
used “sir” and “ma’am” when addressing clerks and cashiers who were
waiting on me in stores.  I could pretend to ignore my own
laughter as a release of tension, but I couldn’t begin to ignore
this sort of unconscionable behaviour from myself.  My reading
was set aside, and I mentally stewed over this turn of events throughout
my meal.  The more I stewed, the guiltier I felt about my behaviour. 
I knew that when Iman brought me my check at the end of the meal,
I was going to need to make some amends.  If for no other reason,
simple politeness demanded it.  Furthermore, I was really quite
disturbed about how resistant I had been to her innocuous question. 
What was going on in me that I responded with that much force to
such a simple and straightforward question?  Why did that one,
simple question lead to such atypical behaviour on my part?

Later, when Iman came
with my check, I attempted a round-about apology by saying: 
“I’m afraid I was a little abrupt in answering your question before. 
If you were asking me whether I believe that there is only one God,
then my answer is yes.  If you were asking me whether I believe
that Muhammad was one of the prophets of that one God, then my answer
is yes.”  She very nicely and very supportively said: 
“That’s okay; it takes some people a little longer than others.”

Perhaps, the readers
of this will be kind enough to note the psychological games I was
playing with myself without chuckling too hard at my mental gymnastics
and behaviour.  I well knew that in my own way, using my own
words, I had just said the Shahadah, the Islamic testimonial of
faith, i.e. “I testify that there is no god but Allah, and I testify
that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”.  However, having
said that, and having recognized what I said, I could still cling
to my old and familiar label of religious identity.  After
all, I hadn’t said I was a Muslim.  I was simply a Christian,
albeit an atypical Christian, who was willing to say that there
was one God, not a triune godhead, and who was willing to say that
Muhammad was one of the prophets inspired by that one God. 
If a Muslim wanted to accept me as being a Muslim that was his or
her business, and his or her label of religious identity. 
However, it was not mine.  I thought I had found my way out
of my crisis of religious identity.  I was a Christian, who
would carefully explain that I agreed with, and was willing to testify
to, the Islamic testimonial of faith.  Having made my tortured
explanation, and having parsed the English language to within an
inch of its life, others could hang whatever label on me they wished. 
It was their label, and not mine.                

It was now March of
1993, and my wife and I were enjoying a five-week vacation in the
Middle East.  It was also the Islamic month of Ramadan, when
Muslims fast from day break until sunset.  Because we were
so often staying with or being escorted around by family members
of our Muslim friends back in the States, my wife and I had decided
that we also would fast, if for no other reason than common courtesy. 
During this time, I had also started to perform the five daily prayers
of Islam with my newfound, Middle Eastern, Muslim friends. 
After all, there was nothing in those prayers with which I could
disagree. 

I was a Christian,
or so I said.  After all, I had been born into a Christian
family, had been given a Christian upbringing, had attended church
and Sunday school every Sunday as a child, had graduated from a
prestigious seminary, and was an ordained minister in a large Protestant
denomination.  However, I was also a Christian:  who didn’t
believe in a triune godhead or in the divinity of Jesus, peace be
upon him; who knew quite well how the Bible had been
corrupted; who had said the Islamic testimony of faith in my own
carefully parsed words; who had fasted during Ramadan; who was saying
Islamic prayers five times a day; and who was deeply impressed by
the behavioural examples I had witnessed in the Muslim community,
both in America and in the Middle East.  (Time and space do
not permit me the luxury of documenting in detail all of the examples
of personal morality and ethics I encountered in the Middle East.) 
If asked if I were a Muslim, I could and did do a five-minute monologue
detailing the above, and basically leaving the question unanswered. 
I was playing intellectual word games, and succeeding at them quite
nicely.

It was now late in
our Middle Eastern trip.  An elderly friend who spoke no English
and I were walking down a winding, little road, somewhere in one
of the economically disadvantaged areas of greater ‘Amman, Jordan. 
As we walked, an elderly man approached us from the opposite direction,
said, “Salam ‘Alaykum”, i.e., “peace be upon you”, and offered to
shake hands.  We were the only three people there.  I
didn’t speak Arabic, and neither my friend nor the stranger spoke
English.  Looking at me, the stranger asked, “Muslim?”

At that precise moment
in time, I was fully and completely trapped.  There were no
intellectual word games to be played, because I could only communicate
in English, and they could only communicate in Arabic.  There
was no translator present to bail me out of this situation, and
to allow me to hide behind my carefully prepared English monologue. 
I couldn’t pretend I didn’t understand the question, because it
was all too obvious that I had.  My choices were suddenly,
unpredictably, and inexplicably reduced to just two:  I could
say “N’am”, i.e., “yes”; or I could say “La”, i.e., “no”. 
The choice was mine, and I had no other.  I had to choose,
and I had to choose now; it was just that simple.  Praise be
to Allah, I answered, “N’am”.

With saying that one
word, all the intellectual word games were now behind me. 
With the intellectual word games behind me, the psychological games
regarding my religious identity were also behind me.  I wasn’t
some strange, atypical Christian.  I was a Muslim.  Praise
be to Allah, my wife of 33 years also became a Muslim about that
same time.

Not too many months
after our return to America from the Middle East, a neighbour invited
us over to his house, saying that he wanted to talk with us about
our conversion to Islam.  He was a retired Methodist minister,
with whom I had had several conversations in the past.  Although
we had occasionally talked superficially about such issues as the
artificial construction of the Bible from various,
earlier, independent sources, we had never had any in-depth conversation
about religion.  I knew only that he appeared to have acquired
a solid seminary education, and that he sang in the local church
choir every Sunday.

My initial reaction
was, “Oh, oh, here it comes”.  Nonetheless, it is a Muslim’s
duty to be a good neighbour, and it is a Muslim’s duty to be willing
to discuss Islam with others.  As such, I accepted the invitation
for the following evening, and spent most of the waking part of
the next 24 hours contemplating how best to approach this gentleman
in his requested topic of conversation.  The appointed time
came, and we drove over to our neighbour's.  After a few moments
of small talk, he finally asked why I had decided to become a Muslim. 
I had waited for this question, and had my answer carefully prepared. 
“As you know with your seminary education, there were a lot of non-religious
considerations which led up to and shaped the decisions of the Council
of Nicaea.”  He immediately cut me off with a simple statement: 
“You finally couldn’t stomach the polytheism anymore, could you?” 
He knew exactly why I was a Muslim, and he didn’t disagree with
my decision!  For himself, at his age and at his place in life,
he was electing to be “an atypical Christian”.  Allah willing,
he has by now completed his journey from cross to crescent.    
          

There are sacrifices
to be made in being a Muslim in America.  For that matter,
there are sacrifices to be made in being a Muslim anywhere. 
However, those sacrifices may be more acutely felt in America, especially
among American converts. Some of those sacrifices are very
predictable, and include altered dress and abstinence from alcohol,
pork, and the taking of interest on one’s money.  Some of those
sacrifices are less predictable.  For example, one Christian
family, with whom we were close friends, informed us that they could
no longer associate with us, as they could not associate with anyone
“who does not take Jesus Christ as his personal savoir”.  In
addition, quite a few of my professional colleagues altered their
manner of relating to me.  Whether it was coincidence or not,
my professional referral base dwindled, and there was almost a 30%
drop in income as a result.  Some of these less predictable
sacrifices were hard to accept, although the sacrifices were a small
price to pay for what was received in return.

For those contemplating
the acceptance of Islam and the surrendering of oneself to Allah—glorified
and exalted is He, there may well be sacrifices along the way. 
Many of these sacrifices are easily predicted, while others may
be rather surprising and unexpected.  There is no denying the
existence of these sacrifices, and I don’t intend to sugar coat
that pill for you.  Nonetheless, don’t be overly troubled by
these sacrifices.  In the final analysis, these sacrifices
are less important than you presently think.  Allah willing,
you will find these sacrifices a very cheap coin to pay for the
“goods” you are purchasing.

(ISLAM) Four Great Imams Of Islam

 (ISLAM) Four Great Imams Of Islam quran teaching online in usa

The outside view of the Mazar of Hazrat Imam Al-Shafi'i
(May Allah be pleased with him) in the Shafi'i Mosque in Cairo.

IMAM SHAAFEE (150 A.H. - 204 A.H.) :
Mohammed bin Idris Al Shaafa'ee (radi Allahu anhu) famously known as Imam Shaafa'ee was born in 150 A.H. and belonged to the Quraish tribe.

EARLY LIFE

When he was 10 years old, he came to Makkatul Mukarramah from Palestine where he grew up. He was very intelligent and had an excellent memory. He memorized the entire Holy Quran at the age of 7. By the age of 15, he had memorized the entire Muwatta of Imam Maalik (radi Allahu anhu). Before the age of 20, he studied Islamic Jurisprudence under the Mufti of Makkatul Mukarramah, Sayyiduna Muslim bin Khalil al Zanji and also Sayyiduna Sufyaan bin Uyayana (radi Allahu anhuma). Imam Maalik bin Anas (radi Allahu anhu) was also his teacher.

Mazar Hazrat Imam Al Shafi'i (May Allah be pleased with him) in Cairo


IN IRAQ
When the Governor of Iraq visited Madinatul Munawwarah, he was so impressed by Imam Shaafa'ee (radi Allahu anhu) that he persuaded him to become an Administrator. As Imam Shaafa'ee (radi Allahu anhu) was in conflict with the Government officials, he was deported to Iraq and brought in front of Haroun Rasheed who was very impressed with Imam Shaafa'ee (radi Allahu anhu).

He now studied Islamic Jurisprudence under Imam Mohammed Ash Shaybaani (radi Allahu anhu), who was the student of Imam Abu Yusuf (radi Allahu anhu), who was the student of Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu). Thus, Imam Shaafa'ee (radi Allahu anhu) became a master of both the Hanafi and Shaafa'ee School of Fiqh.


IN EGYPT
On his way to Egypt, he lectured in Makkatul Mukarramah in the Haram Shareef. Imam Ahmed bin Hambal (radi Allahu anhu), who was studying at the time in Makkatul Mukarramah found great benefit from these lectures. Imam Shaafa'ee (radi Allahu anhu) then went to Baghdad where he spent 3 or 4 years and finally went to Egypt. He was now 50 years old.

In Egypt, scholars from all over the world came to study at his feet. His famous pupils were Sayyiduna Rabi bin Sulayman, Sayyiduna Abu Yacoob Al Ruwayta and Sayyiduna Abu Ebraheem bin Yahya Al Muzani (radi Allahu anhumul ajma'in).


HIS WORKS
"Kitaabul Umm" and "Ar Risaalah" are the two famous books on Islamic Fiqh written by him.


PASSES AWAY
Some reports say that he was injured seriously by a person called Fityan, while other reports mention that he passed away through natural illness on the last day of Rajab in the year 204 Egypt. Maalik Al Kaamil, the Ayyubid Sultan, built a Mazaar for him in 608 A.H.

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Imam Maalik (93 A.H. - 179 A.H.) :
Imam Maalik (radi Allahu anhu) was born in 93 A.H. He was born in the period of the Ummayyad Dynasty. His full name is Maalik bin Anas.

EDUCATION

Imam Maalik (radi Allahu anhu's) grandfather and uncle were great scholars of Hadith. Imam Maalik (radi Allahu anhu) learnt Ahadith from his uncle, Sayyiduna Abu Suhail Nafi (radi Allahu anhu). The Imam was a very keen scholar from his childhood days.


TEACHERS
Imam Maalik (radi Allahu anhu) had many illustrious teachers. Most of them were great Taabi'i scholars who learnt under the Sahaba. Some of his teachers used to teach in Masjidun Nabawi. He learnt how to read the Holy Quran from Sayyiduna Abu Radim Nafi Abdur Rahman (radi Allahu anhu).

He also learnt Hadith under Sayyiduna Nafi, Sayyiduna Jafer Saadiq, Sayyiduna Mohammed bin Yahya Ansaari, Sayyiduna Abu Haashim Salmah, Sayyiduna Yahya bin Said and Sayyiduna Hishaam bin Urwah (radi Allahu anhumul ajma'in).


HIS PUPILS
Imam Maalik (radi Allahu anhu's) fame spread far and wide and many great scholars sat in his company learning Ahadith and other Islamic legal issues. Some 1300 scholars sat at his feet. They copied the "MUWATTA" from him. The "Muwatta" is a collection of Ahadith by Imam Maalik (radi Allah anhu). Many of his pupils copied the Muwatta, the famous among them being: Sayyiduna Yahya bin Yahya Al Masmudi, Sayyiduna ibn Wahab Abu Mohammed Abdullah and Sayyiduna Abi Abdullah Abdur Rahman Abdur Rahman (radi Allahu anhumul ajma'in).


AS A TEACHER
Even Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu), his teacher, held Imam Maalik (radi Allahu anhu) in great regard and respect and should sit in his study circle. Imam Maalik (radi Allahu anhu) liked his students to read aloud while he listened. He used to sit on a high chair with students all around taking notes.


AS A MUHADDITH AND A JURIST
He was a great "Muhaddith" (A Scholar of Hadith). He was very careful in selecting Hadith, and after examining them thoroughly used to record it in his Muwatta.

As a Jurist, he was not afraid of giving a "Fatawa" (Legal Islamic Ruling) even if it was against the Caliph. He was once flogged for doing so.


PASSES AWAY
He passed away on the 11th of Rabi-ul-Awwal in the year 179 A.H. He was 86 years old. Imam Maalik (radi Allahu anhu) is buried in Janatul Baqi in Madinatul Munawwarah.

He never wore shoes whilst in Madinatul Munawwarah. He never sat on a horse or used the toilets in this blessed city. He always went out of the city to relieve himself. He used to kiss the old buildings and the remains of old foundations, saying that Sayyiduna Rasulullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) may have walked by, touched it or saw it. Such was his adoration for Sayyiduna Rasulullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam).

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Imam Abu Abdullah Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Hambal :
Imam Abu Abdullah Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Hambal (radi Allahu anhu) was born in Marw on the 20th of Rabi-ul-Awwal 164 A.H.

EARLY LIFE

His father, Sayyiduna Mohammed (radi Allahu anhu) was a warrior (Mujaahid) and lived in Basrah, Iraq. Imam Ahmed bin Hambal (radi Allahu anhu) was a very intelligent child, keenly interested in furthering his Islamic education. At the age of 16, he began studying Hadith literature. It is said that he learnt almost a million Ahadith by heart. He became a famous Jurist.


HIS TEACHERS
Some of his teachers were Imam Shaafa'ee, Sayyiduna Bishar bin Al Mufaddal, Sayyiduna Ismail bin Ulayyah, Sayyiduna Jarir bin Abdul Hamid and Sayyiduna Yahya bin Said (radi Allahu anhumul ajma'in).

The great compilers of Ahadith, Imam Bukhaari and Imam Muslim (radi Allahu anhuma), including his teacher, Imam Shaafa'ee (radi Allahu anhu), have also reported Hadith from him. Imam Shaafa'ee (radi Allahu anhu), in spite of being the most learned in his time, used to refer to Imam Ahmed bin Hambal (radi Allahu anhu) about certain Ahadith.


HIS PUPILS
Amongst his pupils, the most famous were Sayyiduna Abu Bakr Al Alhram, Sayyiduna Hambal bin Ishaaq and Sayyiduna Abul Qasim Al Baghwi (radi Allahu anhumul ajma'in).


HIS PIETY
Imam Ahmed bin Hambal (radi Allahu anhu) was a very pious scholar who devoted all his life in the Science of Ahadith and Fiqh. He refused to eat in anyone's house who held a Governmental post. Being extremely poor with no food to eat at times, he used to still refuse to accept charity saying that he had full faith in Almighty Allah.


HIS WORKS
The most famous among his books are: Kitaabul A'maal, Kitaabut Tafseer, Kitaabul Naasikh wal Mansookh, Kitaabul Zahid, Kitaabul Masaa'il, Kitaabul Fadaa'il and Kitaabul Mansiq.

His most famous book is his "MUSNAD", a kitab in which he collected about 50 000 to 70 000 Ahadith.


IMPRISONMENT
Imam Ahmed bin Hambal (radi Allahu anhu), in the later years of his life, was imprisoned and tortured by the ruthless rulers who went against him due to their un-Islamic beliefs and practises. Caliph Mutasim billah forced the Imam to accept the beliefs of the "Mu'tazalis" (a corrupt sect), but he refused, and was beaten to such a degree that his joints were dislocated. He was kept in heavy chains for 30 months in a prison in Baghdad. He still refused to accept the beliefs of the corrupt Mu'tazali Sect and was again beaten till he fell unconscious.


PASSES AWAY
On the 25th of Ramadaan in the year 221 A.H., Caliph Mutasim, in fear of the sin he committed, repented and set the Imam free. Imam Ahmed bin Hambal (radi Allahu anhu) forgave all the people except the Mutazalis. He passed away in the year 241 A.H.

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Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (80 A.H. - 150 A.H.)

Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu's) full name was Numan bin Thaabit bin Zuta bin Mah. He was born in Kufa in Iraq in 80 A.H. He belonged to the pious period of the Taabi'ins (Successors of the Sahabas).

DIVINE MISSION

It is stated in a Hadith Shareef which Imam al-Harizmi reported from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (radi Allahu anhumA) that Sayyiduna Rasulullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) said: "Among my Ummah, there will come a man called Abu Hanifa. On the Day of Resurrection, he will be the light of my Ummah." Another Hadith Shareef states: "In every century, a number of my Ummah will attain to high grades. Abu Hanifa will be the highest of his time." These two Ahadith are recorded in "Durr al-Mukhtar."


EARLY LIFE
While still in his youth, he met great Sahaba like Sayyiduna Anas bin Maalik, Sayyiduna Sahl bin Saad and Sayyiduna Abul Tufail Amir bin Wathilah (radi Allahu anhumul ajma'in). Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) was first brought up as a trader, but soon started taking deep interest in Islamic learning.


EDUCATION
He attended the lectures of Sayyiduna Hammad Basri (radi Allah anhu) in Fiqh and then began to study the Hadith. He learnt under great scholars in Kufa. In Basrah he studied under two great Taabi'ie scholars who had learnt Hadith under the Sahaba.

In Makkatul Mukarammah and Madinatul Munawwarah, he learnt under Sayyiduna Ata bin Abi Rabah and Sayyiduna Ikramah (radi Allahu anhuma). In fact, Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) had numerous teachers. Some historians say that he learnt Hadith from about 4 000 scholars.

Some of his famous teachers were: Sayyiduna Imam Baaqir, Sayyiduna Imam Jafer Saadiq, Sayyiduna Ali, Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah, Sayyiduna Abdullah ibn Umar, Sayyiduna Aqabah bin Umar, Sayyiduna Safwaan, Sayyiduna Jabir and Sayyiduna Abu Qatadah (radi Allahu anhumul ajma'in).

AS A TEACHER
When his teacher, Sayyiduna Hammad Basri (radi Allahu anhu) passed away, Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) was 40 years old and he began teaching. He became very famous and travelled many places. Students from all over the Muslim world came to him to listen to his lectures, interviews and debates. Imam Maalik (radi Allahu anhu) also learnt under him.

When he was 56 years old, Caliph Mansur came to power after the Ummayad dynasty was overthrown by the Abbasids in 132 A.H. Since Imam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) opposed the Caliph's ruthless killing of the Ahle Bait, he was arrested. The Caliph offered the Imam the post of a Qaadi (Judge), but he refused. The Caliph Mansur had him beaten with a stick 30 strokes. His feet bled. Caliph Mansur repented and offered Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) 30 000 pieces of silver. The great Imam refused once more. He was imprisoned again and thrashed 10 more strokes every day.


PASSES AWAY
In the Month of Rajab 150 A.H., Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) passed away while in Salaah. He had been poisoned by the orders of Caliph Mansur. His Janaza Salaah was performed six times and each time 50 000 people took part. People continued to come and pray for him for 20 days after he was buried. He was 70 years old.

In 459 A.H. a Mazaar (Tomb) was built for him by the Seljuki ruler Alp Arsalan. He lies buried in a Tomb situated near Baghdad in Iraq.


STUDENTS
Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) left behind about 980 students. The most famous among them being:

a. Sayyiduna Qadi Abu Yusuf (radi Allahu anhu)

b. Sayyiduna Imam Muhammed (radi Allahu anhu)

c. Sayyiduna Imam Zufur (radi Allahu anhu)


PERSONALITY
Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) earned his living by trading. Every Friday, he distributed 20 gold coins to the poor for his parents soul. For 40 years Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) performed the Fajr Salaah with the Wudu that he made for the Esha Salaah (ie. he did not sleep after the night prayer). He performed Hajj 55 times. He used to recite the entire Holy Quran once every day and once every night. Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) had so much of Taqwa (Piety) that for 30 years he fasted every day (except for the 5 forbidden days). He often read the Holy Quran in one rakaah or two. He did not accept any presents from anyone. He wore clothes like those of the poor. Imam A'zam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) once said: "I laughed once in my life and I regret it." He talked little and thought much. It is said that at the place where his soul was taken, he read the Holy Quran 7 000 times.

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