The
Bible Led Me to Islam
Abdul
Malik LeBlanc tells how he discovered Islam within the pages of the Bible
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, travelling, 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
Qur’an:
"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 (Salamun 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 wordings of this 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.
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 recognize 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 or 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
The
Qur’an 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:
"
"...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
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 neighbour 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 or 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
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 who 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 fulfil 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 say, 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...”
(An Nisa 4:157)
====
Taken
from International Edition Voice of Islam, November 1998, Page 25