Answers to
"Born-Again"
Preachers'
Bismillah Rahman
Raheem
Islam: "Way of
life in submission to God in Peace"
Allah said in the Holy Quran:
"It is not fitting for a believer that when Allah and His Messenger decide
a matter to have any other opinion. They say nothing more than, 'We hear and we
obey.'"
[Holy Quran 33:36]
All answers are provided by
direction of Yusuf Estes, national chaplain and spokesman for ISLAM TODAY
PROJECT, unless otherwise stipulated. The following is a reproduction of an
actual dialog through email with a "born-again" Christian and the
National Muslim chaplain, Yusuf Estes, who was a former Christian businessman
and minister before entering into Islam in July of 1991.
The simple beauty of
understanding where people are coming from in their thinking and having proper
knowledge of Islam and the methodology of explaining Islam (menhaj ad dawah),
is
demonstrated here to show how
close some of the statements against Islam are to actually in fact verifying
the proof that Islam is the only correct religion with Allah. These questions
are from a man that Allah has been testing with belief in Christianity &
Islam.
The answers are provided from
Today Islam's Sheik Yusuf Estes.
As we will see, many times the
very objections and complaints that others have about Islam, can actually be
used to support the correct teachings of Islam. The problem comes from the fact
that
all too often we do not know
enough about what the people are meaning and not enough about our own religion.
Notice the art of agreeing at the correct points and then bringing about a
clear understanding in the other points without alienating the other person.
Thank you for writing to us with
your ideas, comments and questions.
In a message dated 3/14/2002 9:22:40 PM Eastern Standard
Time, a Christian writes:
Humans do wrong things, evil
things regardless of what religion they belong to.
Answer:
Yes. There is no doubt
whatsoever, that what you are saying is the belief of the Muslims. This is
correct and we agree on that. Islam does teach that all people do commit sins.
However, some realize the severity of it and then they do repent to the One
True God of the Universe, the Lord Almighty, who has no partners. And He then
extends to them His Grace and forgives them from His Mercy.
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So it is not wise to first of all
judge and secondly to judge a religion based on people.
Answer:
Yes, again. Muslims are not the
final judge. It is only Allah who is the Judge. And Islam is based on the
teachings of the Quran and the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him. What some
people chose to
do, and then call it
"Islam" does not affect the truth of what Islam really is. So the
answer here to you is; "No. It is not correct to judge a system of belief
by some people who claim to be in that religion."
After all, Hitler, Al Capone
(1930s gangster) and Timothy McVeigh (the man who confessed to bombing the
Federal building in Oklahoma City) all claimed to be Christians the same as
you. But I feel certain that you would not want anyone judging you and your beliefs
based on those characters, right?
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I think you must be from a
Catholic system and that's why Islam convinced you more but Jesus is the truth,
the way and the life.
Answer:
No. Sorry, but actually, you are
wrong on this point. My family for generations
have all been in nondenominational Christianity, simply called "Christian
Church" until the 1950s when there was a
split and one branch became known
as the "Disciples of Christ." You might be interested to know that
all of the Protestant churches today have their origins in the Catholic Church.
However, the Catholic Church actually was in business prior to the birth of Jesus,
peace be upon him. It was the old Roman Church originating out of the concepts
of Alexander the Great. It was totally pagan in its origins. And the first time
it came in contact with the early Church Fathers, at the Nicaea Council, (325
AD) it swallowed up their books, and teachers and totally revamped the whole
religion. That was the time when the day for celebrating Jesus birthday was
CHANGED to December the 25. Also, the addition of the rites of the Feast of
Ishtar (now called Easter) were established. The day of worship was CHANGED
from Saturday (Sabbath) to Sunday to accommodate the Emperor's worship of his
religion. He was a cult worshipper in "Sol Invictus" (Invincible Sun).
He was a sun worshipper and believed that he was the son of the sun,
literally.
Another interesting note is that
fact that the books that were offer at the Nicaea Council by the original
Christians totaled in number exceeding 200. Yet they only selected a few. The
Catholics held
onto a total of 73 books from the
Old and New Testament. Later (early 1500s) the Protestant Reformation reduced
the number to only 66. Keeping 39 books of the Old Jewish Testament and 27
books for what they called the
New Testament. The Coptic claim they have the more accurate version being the
one based on Saint Mark's Testament.
It is also interesting to note
that Catholic was not the only church out there at that time. The Copts
(Egypt), and the Greek Orthodox and the Eastern Orthodox were already in place.
Christianity had
already reached the British Isles
before the Nicaea Council so they already had the foundation for the Anglican
Church. Christianity had made some influence into the superstitions of the
Germanic
parts of Europe and the affects
of their nature worship began to affect the beliefs of the Christians in those
areas. This is evidenced by the results arising out of the Catholic movement in
that area in
later dates. As for me
personally, I did visit a number of churches in the Protestant denominations.
However, I have never attended a single mass or any Catholic form of worship. I
have been to a Catholic wedding but I felt that it was too much for me in many ways.
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Philosophies, ideas, magic, evil
, etc., cannot bring dead back to life, only GOD can.
Answer:
Yes. That is also the belief of a
Muslim. Humans also do not bring the dead back to life except by the permission
of Allah, as in the case of Jesus, peace be upon him, when Allah let him bring Lazarus
back from the dead.
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God brought me back to life,
believe it or not.
Answer:
We as Muslims believe that when a
person dies they do not recycle or come back to this life. However, we also
know that Allah sent Jesus to perform miracles to show people that he was a prophet
of Allah. One of the miracles was to bring back a man to life. But the man
still ended up dying later anyway. Allah has told us in the Quran that
"every soul shall taste death." This includes even Jesus, as I am
sure that you are well aware. We are not
dead yet, but when we are, it will only be Allah who will bring us back and
about that we may be sure.
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Catholics have a system from
which a lot of things are not even mentioned in the bible so if that's what you
compared Islam with then I can understand.
Answer:
(note: the word "Bible"
should be capitalized out of respect). Yes. You are correct again. And that is
why the Protestants (from the word "protest") broke off from the
Catholic church in 1520 under Martin Luther. Many different forms of
Christianity grew out of this break up and each of them claimed they were
correct. Question here is: "How do
you know which one is correct?"
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But if you are saying you knew
the JESUS mentioned in the bible and then also you accepted Islam . . .?
Answer:
The more that I searched for the
"Jesus" of the Bible in sincerity and honesty, the more that Allah
led me to know the true "Jesus" and what his message really was. He
was telling the people not to change the Word of God and not to worship anyone
alongside of God. He was calling himself by the title of the prophets mentioned
in the Old Testament; "Son of Man." This is clear when you compare
the statements in Ezekiel.
Jesus was doing his miracles by
the permission of Allah, the Almighty. He did nothing on his own, but rather by
the One who sent him in the first place. This is the understanding in Islam and
the eachings in what remains of the Holy Bible.
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hmmmm...are you sure about the
information you have about Jesus?
Answer:
Good question. I have information
from a number of sources. The most authentic of all is the Holy Quran as it
still exists today. We Muslims must agree with the fact that Jesus is the
"miracle birth"
as that is in the Quran. His
mother was a virgin. She was the best of women ever created. He did many
miracles by Allah's permission. He did not know what was in Allah, but Allah
Knows what is in him, peace be upon him. Jesus is still alive and he is coming
back in the Last Days. He will kill the Anti-Christ. The true believers will
follow him. There will be victory over the evil one. In Islam we have even
learned what he looks like, where he will appear, what he will do first and
the order of the things that will happen
in the Last Days. What do you know about the person you are calling
"Jesus?" Let us begin with his
name. Was it "Jesus." - No.
The word "Jesus" is the
Latinized name given to him after the Council of Nicaea. His name comes from
the Old Semitic name "Eeshua" or "Eesa." This is based on
the pronunciation of the letter known as "seen" or in Hebrew
"sheen." The Jewish pronounce the word for "peace" as
"Shalom;" whereas, the Arabic pronunciation would be
"Salam." So we see how the name of "Eesa" can also be
"Eeshua." But why
should we say "Jesus" when he never called himself by that name?
Next, we know that he was not
born on December 25. (documented in the Nicaea Council records). According to
the Bible he was born during the census taking for the tax polls at the time of
Herod the Great. This was done in the Fall of the year, not the winter.
According to the Quran, he was born at the time dates would be ripe and ready
to fall from the trees. That again, is in the fall, not in the winter. Also, he
was born before the beginning of the calendar date 1 AD (According to the
Bible, he was born in the reign of Herod the Great which would probably have
been around 6 BC) Outside of the Bible, the only other chronicler of events of
that time was Josephus. He lived in the area and even traveled about the same
time and to the same places as did Saul (later became Paul). Josephus does not
mention Jesus or the son of God or anything like this occurring. William
Whitset (200 + years ago) did translate the works of Josephus and added, yes
ADDED an entire chapter to his works, fabricating a meeting between Josephus
and Jesus and even having Josephus believing in the son of God story. However,
Josephus was a Jew and he worked for the Romans as an advisor and journalist.
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I am sure you read the bible and
found contradictions in it, because you were looking for them?
Answer:
I have read the Bible many times
since I was old enough to read. I have many different versions in different
languages of the Holy Bible. I also have the books of commentary and
explanation of the
Bible, including the Strong's
Concordance of the Bible. My father, an ordained minister, was the first one to
point out mistakes in the King James Version of the Bible. The Revised Standard
Version very clearly points out a number of "Grave mistakes and
errors" in the King James Version of the Bible. In his book, "History
of the Translations of the Bible into the English Language," the Biblical
scholar F. F. Bruce, clearly states that the first revision of the King James
Version came in the very next year
after its first translation due
to very serious errors in it. The book, "Who Wrote the Bible"
very clearly states a number of human mistakes
and errors. Other books in my library today include
apocrypha and "lost"
books of the Bible and all of them clearly show that there is room for
admission of errors, mistakes, contradictions and interpolations in the Bible. There
is not a single serious Bible scholar that would tell you that he has an
original of the Bible. Nor is there one who really believes that the Bible was
revealed in English. This is nonsense and does not even merit a discussion. The
version that is offered in book stores today in Greek, is actually a backward
translation from the English to the Greek and not the other way around as many people
mistakenly believe. The same is true for most languages including Arabic. I own
a number of different versions and translations of the Bible into many
languages. The Arabic and the Spanish will translate right into the English
version easily, mistakes and all. Why? Because that is where they came from to
start with. There was no English language, no Spanish language, no Portuguese
language, no French language at the time of Jesus (or Muhammad, peace be upon
him, for that matter). So where did
these translations come from?
Straight from the English. If you go back to older manuscripts you will find
many problems with what is being represented in these "modern"
versions of the Bible.
Perhaps you have read my book on
this subject. If not, feel free to visit our website and print it out. It is free. And you can make copies if you
like.
But we did not try to prove the
Bible was wrong. We only tried to find out where the Bible was right. That is
why I studied what remains of it in the ancient languages.
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Did you read Quran with that
intension?
Answer:
As a matter of fact, I did try to
disprove the Quran as being from Allah. After all, I used to be a real enemy to
Islam and Muslims due to the heavy influence of other evangelists like Pat
Robertson,
Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart,
Benny Hind, Oral and Richard Roberts. Personal friends of mine were also haters
of Islam and had told me the Quran was the book of the devil. So, I prayed before
even touching it. I did try my best to find mistakes and errors so that I could
show the Muslim that I was trying to convert to Christianity the "error of
his ways." I read the Quran from
cover to cover in English. I was sure that I would find mistakes and errors
just as we know there are many in the Bible.
I could not find one.
Then I began to learn the Arabic language and I have read
the Quran in Arabic.
This is without doubt, not something a human can make up.
This is at last the true "Speech of Almighty God."
Over nine million (9,000,000) people living on earth today
have memorized the ENTIRE QURAN. Think about that for just a minute.
Can anyone say that about the
Bible?
No.
We know that the original
Bible came from Allah and that it was memorized
in the early days of Moses and others. But over the centuries different people
came along and changed it for whatever
reasons. Once the Word of Allah
is changed, it is no longer the Word of Allah and as such it not longer has
that special quality and protection of Allah.
I challenge anyone to bring a
single person who even find an original Bible and then memorize an equal amount
of the text to the Quran and then be able to recite it in the beautiful manner
recited by those who recite Quran
everyday. Has anyone ever memorized the
whole Bible in any language? Has anyone memorized the New Testament? Can 8 and
9 year old children stand up and recite the Bible in Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek
for hours at a time without looking at the words?
No.
No one has memorized the Bible,
not even the Pope; not even Pat Robertson; not Jimmy Swaggart; not Benny Hind;
not Oral Roberts; not even the Pope.
Muslims all over the world that I
have met, all recite exactly the same thing regardless of their native
languages, culture, background or traditions.
All of them recite it in Arabic,
letter for letter and word for word.
Please feel free to visit our
website and read my articles about the Quran and the miracles that it contains
in regard to modern discoveries in science, medicine and even space travel.
Let me explain what happened to
us in brief:
My father was an ordained
minister, I preached Christianity to anyone who would listen in those days. My
wife was a strong believer and we did go to church regularly in those days.
We met a Muslim from Egypt and we
tried to convert him to Christianity to "save" him. He came to live
in our big home out in the country near Dallas, Texas. We also met a Catholic
priest who
was recovering from a heart
attack. He too came to live with us in our home.
My father, my wife, myself, the
Catholic priest and the Muslim from Egypt used to all sit around the table at
night and discuss the Bible, religion, beliefs, Jesus, peace be upon him. We
felt sure that
we must be in the right religion
and that we just had different understandings of things.
But it was the Muslim who made
the amazing statement that I shall never forget. He said, "If what you have is better than what I have,
then I am willing to join you.
I thought, "Wow! This will
be easy. Get the baptismal ready! We're going to give this boy a bath
tonight!"
But then he said something else
that I shall remember for a long time, "But you will need to have
proof."
I said, "Proof?"
"We don't need proof. We only have faith."
He said, "Muslims have faith, and proof."
That is when we began to learn
the miracles in the Quran and how that it came 1,400 years ago, yet it told of
things that would happen in the future and they did happen. Additionally, it
talks about science and medicine, biology, formation of the universe, the earth
being round and in an orbit, and even about going into outer space. All of this
came over 1,400 years ago to a man who could neither read nor write. It was all
recited in classical Arabic in beautiful prose that none have been able to
imitate until this very day.
And even I could learn this
language and understand and recite it. What an amazing thing.
But it was the Catholic priest
who embraced Islam first. Then my wife made it known to me that she too, was
ready to live the live of a Muslim woman and wanted to wear the covering and be
treated
as the women of Islam are
treated, with respect and honor. I accepted Islam the very next morning.
My father came along a little
later on at his own speed. All of us
were changed and we have seen many more good, righteous and honest Christians,
even priests, bishops and ministers coming to Islam since that time.
You can get the whole story by
going to:
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Anyways, God's will be done, in
Jesus name I pray, Amen Amen
Amen!
Answer:
Yes!
May God's Will be done. That is
so beautiful coming from you at the end of your letter trying
to talk to me about Christianity.
Because you see, you just said that you want to be a "Muslim."
That's right. "Islam"
means, "God's Will be done on earth, especially in us as human
beings." The actual meaning of the word "Islam" comes from the
root word, "salama." And there are five clear meanings into the
English language from the word "Islam." They are:
1. Surrender to God's Will
2. Submission to God's Will
3. Obedience to God's Will
4. Sincerity to God's Will
5. Being in Peace with God's
Will
And in Arabic instead of using
the suffix of "er" at the end of a verb to show the one who is
performing the action, you place the letter "meem" in front of the
verb and then pronounce it "mu."
Therefore, one who
"Islam's" would be a "mu" "Islam" -- Muslim. So,
may Allah accept your admission of Islam being the correct way of life and may
He make all of us in "His Will," ameen.
By the way, we pray in the Name
of the Almighty, Himself. We say; "Bismillah." This means in the Name
of Almighty Allah." We don't pray in the name of Moses or Muhammad, or
Abraham or Jesus.
None of these mighty and
wonderful prophets of Almighty God Above ever prayed in their own names or
someone else's name when praying to the One Above. Jesus did not pray in his
own
name. So, we pray to the same God
Above that they prayed to, in the same way that they prayed to Him. We even
follow the physical style they they followed, that was standing, bowing, putting
our face on the ground to Him in our prayers. You know what comes to my mind on
this issue? This may be one of your problems. You need to eliminate the middle
man and pray direct so that you can be assured that the One Above is accepting it.
It could be that when you pray in the name of something else or someone else,
that the Almighty God Above may not accept the prayer and as a result allow the
person to be misguided. After all if a person insists on making up something in
worship that the Lord has not ordained nor approved of, it might well be
rejected.
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Practicing what you like is good
for you but to say that somebody else's religion is false will always bring you
questions like these.
Answer:
You are right once again. And in
Islam we are taught that there is no compulsion in religion. Everyone is free
to accept or reject Islam. But if a person submits to Allah in Islam, it is
expected that they will do it wholeheartedly and not just play around. We pray five
times a day, fast the month of Ramadhan, pay charity to the poor (Muslims or
non-Muslims alike), and we make the pilgrimage to Makkah to commemorate the
religious rites of Abraham. Actually in your last statement above it was you
who said that you wanted "God's Will to be done." So, now you
wouldn't want to change your mind and ask for some other will to be done instead
of Allah's would you? Of course not. God Almighty has His Will and you and I
want that to be done on earth in the place of the things that oppose His Will,
right? So, then it is not any person's will that we are seeking here. We in
fact, are negating the will of the individual in favor of the Will of the
Almighty on His Terms, right? Keep in mind that it is not I who am originating
this in our dialogue here. I am not who determines what God's Will is, He Alone
does that. So this necessarily cancels all of the opposing will of those
created humans here on earth. And you just
got through bearing witness to the truth of it in your last
statement.
There is only One God. He is the
only One to tell us what He will accept in worship. That is why we say:
"God's Will" not my will, be done on earth as it is in Heaven. You
just said it yourself. So there can only be one correct religion -- the one
that God has ordered and it is in fact "Islam" as you just witnessed
to yourself.
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You claim that what you believe
it right and the rest is false and that's what made me email you, sorry if I
offended you.
Answer:
You have not offended me at all.
I'm happy to hear you are ready to surrender to the Will of God. This is so
beautiful. I only regret that I have been traveling for so long and am only
just now having the time to read your letter. May Allah always keep you in His
Will, ameen.
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God forgive me for my
immatureness. A creation of GOD!!
Answer:
Again, we agree with you 100%. We
are all only creations of the One Creator. He created the heavens and the earth
and the angels and Adam. From Adam He created Eve and from them two
He created all the humans of the
earth. So, if you accept that, then you and I were already brothers in
humanity. But since your confession of faith in the Surrender, Submission, Obedience, Sincerity
and Peace with the Almighty, and you believe that only Allah Almighty has the
right to determine what is religion in the first place; and you accept that
only His Will should be done on earth, we may be closer to each other in faith
than many others who claim to be Christian or Jew. You see, after all, the one who truly
believes in the original Books of Allah and His prophets, peace be upon them
all, will likely see the same truth in Islam. When they wake up to the beauty
and truth of Islam they will recognize it to be the same religion that Jesus
preached and they will be most excited to enter into it just as I did, and my
father did, and my wife did and our friend the Catholic priest did, eleven
years ago.
My final advise to you as a
brother human is to go off in private somewhere that nobody even knows what you
are doing and then pray as you have never prayed before, directly to the One
Almighty God of the universe. Ask Him for His Guidance for you in this life. Thank
you so much for your good questions and may Allah guide us to all Truth and
forgive me for my shortcomings and for anything that I may have said wrong, as
well. Ameen.
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All answers are provided by
direction of Yusuf Estes, national chaplain and spokesman for ISLAM TODAY
PROJECT, unless otherwise stipulated. Pray for him and all those who are
assisting him to do so only for the sake of Allah.
Email Us At: sheikyusuf@aol.com
Your questions are important. If
you feel that we have not provided sufficient answers to your questions, then please
visit the following sites for additional help on many subjects on Islam:
We do refer to both of these and
"ISLAMONLINE" does occasionally use our services to assist in English
answers. We strive to please Allah and ask him to forgive our mistakes and not
to let us be a source of misguidance for ourselves or others, ameen. Any good
in this is from Allah and the mistakes are from ourselves.
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