Messages

46

Discussions / The Lost Injeel

« on: November 25, 2012, 01:39:53 PM »

Salam Brother Joseph,
I was recently reading your article on the Injeel.
''The Quran clearly confirms the existence of the Injeel that the contemporaries of the Prophet had with them at the time of his ministry.''

If the Christians of the 7th century definitely had some portions of the Injeel, then we must also have those today, because Biblical scholars have more access to archaic documents than Christians of old. Almost all ancient Christian documents cite Jesus referring to God as Abba - 'Father' and himself as His 'son'. Some portions of the Gospels even say he claimed divinity. You will note that almost every instance Jesus refers to himself as the 'son' in the Gospels, he refers to himself as 'servant' in the Quran(Compare Infancy Gospel of Thomas to Quran's infancy story). Some of the Gospels clearly make Jesus contradict the Quran(Eye for an eye).

What can an objective student to do with these overwhelming occurrences that could not have possibly been 'late interpolation' or forgeries, as the Quran seems to imply(or suggest that the Christians were deviating)? Why does Prophet Muhammad even need to reveal this new revelation if the Injeel was never corrupted, as it is widespread throughout the world today?

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General Discussions / Re: No More Miracles!

« on: October 05, 2012, 10:37:02 AM »

The Quran itself is a living miracle. I mean this in the most literal way possible. Discounting all the expanding-universe, embryology and universal-solvent stuff(which can be dis-proven), their is Mathematical Genius within the Book.

One great example is that the word for 'Man' is mentioned 23 times and the word for 'Woman' is also mentioned 23 times. If you took High school Biology your brain just recalled Chromosomes. What is undeniably ingenius about this is that in truth their are 46 chromosomes(23 pairs) inherited from a human's parents. This is symbolic not only for 'gender equality' but also for miraculous knowledge within the Quran. It all depends on how you look at it.

Another example is that the word 'Salawat', which means Prayers(plural) is mentioned FIVE times. Quite interesting! Many more can be found at: http://www.miraclesofthequran.com/mathematical_01.html

"Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." - 'Isa

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General Discussions / Re: Mention of ''Body parts'' of Allah in Islamic sources

« on: October 05, 2012, 10:10:56 AM »

Subhanallah! Thank you for your great interpretation. I didn't notice the context of the '8 Angels' verse, but you've made it quite clear. They will carry out his decrees on the Day of Judgement.

On a side note, do you think Allah is a literal Physical composite, like Sheikh Ibn Taymiyyah demonstrates in his books? Since Allah is the Eternal God, their is no need for him to physically exist in any realm(whether comprehensible by humans or not). But is it still possible that He does exist in this form or not, somewhere above the Heavens?

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General Discussions / Re: Mention of ''Body parts'' of Allah in Islamic sources

« on: October 01, 2012, 08:43:19 AM »

I personally dislike the common Salafi argument that God is a physical composite until I read...

"And you will see the angels surrounding the Throne, exalting [ Allah ] with praise of their Lord."(39:75)
"And the angels will be on the sides thereof, and eight( will uphold the Throne of thy Lord that day, above them."(69:17)

Why would God go out of his way to tell us how many angels are holding the throne? This must be anthropomorphic as their is no other explanation. How would you explain these verses and similar ones to it?

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General Discussions / Re: Mary's Gender

« on: October 01, 2012, 08:13:47 AM »

Only people that do not believe in God's miracles would make this claim. It is quite insulting. Some 'muslim' said that it's easier to believe in the Quran if the miracles didn't exist. To make it more reasonable to athiests, they say Mary was an hermaphrodite. Astaghfarullah!

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General Discussions / Re: Shahahdah

« on: September 14, 2012, 08:58:02 AM »

Salam Brother Joseph,

"Indeed, even today, some do elevate humans and assign unwarranted authority such as unqualified intercession rights and this can be argued as 'association' [2], but by the mere utterance of the testimony, does not make this ‘testimony’ false."

You're obviously referring to the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) and the Day of Judgement. Their is no prostration, begging, etc. on the Ummah's part, because it's just an event that will naturally happen(hypothetically speaking).If one were to firmly believe that the Prophet will intercede on the Ummah's behalf, is that really comparable to Shirk?

I agree that to believe in it is blatant ignorance of 039:019, but then again people can always argue with:
Say: "I have no power over any good or harm to myself except as God wills"
"Who is there that can intercede in His presence except as He permits? "
"No intercessor (can plead with Him) except after His leave."

Why does Allah constantly mention "except by permission," if it is totally impossible for intercession to occur?

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General Discussions / Re: can someone explain me 11:7 about God's throne on water and about sorcery ?

« on: September 14, 2012, 08:41:11 AM »

@optimist:
“And He it is Who has created the heavens and the earth in Six Days and -His Throne was on the water-.”[ Surat Hud, Ayah 7]
If we read the Torah, in Genesis it clearly says:
"2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

This tends to lean more towards the 'physical throne' argument. Both of these verses refer to the creation story AND involve God Above the waters. This doesn't seem to be related to human/organic composition. If the throne was referring to His authority/control, why does He randomly(sorry, trying to convey a point here) state that His 'authority' was above the waters?

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Prophets and Messengers / What's his name?

« on: August 19, 2012, 12:53:50 PM »

Many Christians claim that Muslims don't "know" Jesus because we don't even have his actual Arabic name. I will attempt to disprove this claim. The Quranic name for Jesus is 'Isa('Ayin-Seen-Alif). The Arab-Christian name is Y'sua'(Ya-Seen-Waw-'Ayin).

If you ask anyone what languages Jesus spoke, the response would be: Aramaic/Late Syriac for common dialogue, Hebrew for liturgy/Torah, and Greek for the Romans/Elite. His name would be Eshoa' in Aramaic, Yeshua' in Hebrew and Iēsous in Greek. Knowing this, the best translation would have to come from Aramaic to Arabic.

It is a common Quranic/Arabic phenomena to remove the initial consonant Y, if followed by an I or E(e.g. Israel, Isaac, Ishmael) as opposed to names followed by an A or O(e.g. Yacob, Yosef). For some reason, Arab Christians will accept the latter, but not the first(case in point:Jesus).

The native Sheen is translated into Seen in both Arabic forms.

The Quranic name 'Isa replaces "ua" with "aa". The Arab-Christian name Y's-UA' retains this. Basic Arabic translations would remove double-vowels like this(e.g. N-OA-h=Nuh, Mash-IA-ch=Masih).

So without a doubt the Arabic name of Jesus is IsA'(Alif-Seen-Ayin'). We now know that the Arab-Christian name is just a transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua', not an Arabic translation of his real name. The question remains: Why does the Qur'an switch the position of the 'Ayin and Alif?

The answer is relatively simple. For ease of rhyming and memorization. Allah changed names in the Qur'an in order for them to sound more poetic together(e.g. Habil-Kabil, Talut-Jalut, etc.). 'Isa occurs five times with the name Musa, out of a total of 25 times. So the Quranic 'Isa is actually a better translation(although deliberately changed) than the Arab-Christian Y'sua'!

Please spread this info. and use it to debate people who make such claims against Muslims...

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Prophets and Messengers / Re: Dhul Qarnain

« on: August 19, 2012, 11:38:08 AM »

Yeah... Dhul Qarnayn is Cyrus the Persian without much doubt. I find it interesting that the Jews consider him a Messiah for freeing Israel from Babylonian captivity, even though he was not an Israelite himself. Yet they refuse to accept Jesus as a Messiah.

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Prophets and Messengers / Re: Prophet Jesus- Peace be upon him

« on: August 19, 2012, 11:32:32 AM »

Bump^^^
Jesus' suffering was not a divine plan of "atonement" by God. It was just an event that the Christians blew out of proportion.

In Roman-Judea many people were crucified for a variety of crimes. In the gospels he claimed divinity in front of rabbi's in John 8:58 by saying "before Abraham was born, I am." That was the final straw for the rabbi's, who ultimately got him crucified. However, from a Muslim perspective, Jesus never claimed divinity. We do believe that he is the Messiah, and because he claimed that role the Jews wanted him killed. They considered him a liar/witch when he claimed the wisdom of the Injil and preached it. He probably also renounced the Sanhedrin/Talmudic Laws which the Temple forced on citizens. So there are many reasons WHY this episode occurred.

He didn't really suffer(asides from crucifixion) so much. In fact he survived and lived long, by God's grace. Ayub was plagued all his life and Abraham was almost burnt alive. So it's not about who suffers the most.

Christians are not confused on this issue. They believe he died on the cross for the sins of all mankind. So it does support their claims if he died that way. They say that no man can do enough good to please an infinite God, and the death of his son was enough for paradise.

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Prophets and Messengers / Re: Prophet Yahya

« on: July 24, 2012, 02:06:28 AM »

It is widely known in Christianity, that John baptised Jesus(pbut). The gospels testify to this and each one seemingly adds more to the story than what  actually happened. The Qur'an makes no mention of Yahya "baptizing", but it uses very unique and powerful terms to describe him, some of which aren't casual Arabic words. Examples would include Samiy(Name-sake or elevated), Sayyid(Master), Wali(Protector), Hasur(Concealer[of secrets]), and other exclusive terms you can look up in lexicons. It's also interesting to note that the Mandaeans of Iraq revere "Yahia Yuhanna" as a final prophet and are obsessed with baptizing(multiple times). The Mandaeans refer to themselves as "Sabiun Mandiun", so they could be the Sabians mentioned in the Qur'an. This does not prove John's baptism, but definitely increases his "status" in the minds of mainstream Muslims, with regard to other Prophets(namely Jesus). If he did indeed baptise Jesus, this would indirectly give him a higher rank than Jesus, which would explain why the gospels dramatically change his story. Keep in mind that the Qur'an views all prophets as equal though.