Not All Arabs Are Muslim

[Guest Think Speak]

Ignorance is the path to war.

 

http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/rsc/id/6302

 

The terms Arab and Muslim are not equivalent. While most Arabs are Muslims, not all are. And most Muslims are not Arabs. Indeed, the largest Muslim nation is non-Arab Indonesia. Iran and

Afghanistan, too, though overwhelmingly Muslim, are not Arab. And Islam is a powerful and sometimes dominant presence in such varied places as China, Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Kenya, and

Bangladesh.

 

There were Jews in pre-Islamic Arabia, but they weren't interested in converts. There were Christians, as well— but to align oneself with Christianity was, willingly or not, to make a political statement and to join the pro-Byzantine "party." On the other hand, if one decided to become a Zoroastrian that could be seen as aligning oneself with the pro-Persian "party." And such choices had consequences, because both the Byzantines and the Persians, as part of their ongoing rivalry, were becoming interested in the merchant wealth that traversed Arabia and were seeking control of peninsular trade routes.

 

So these seekers—or, as they are known in Arabic, these hunafa—seem to have held to a non-aligned and simple monotheism, praying and fasting and hoping, perhaps, for something better. Muhammad was one of them.

[Luke_Wilbur]

Would you say that we need to understand the difference between Arab nationalism and Political Islam?

[Guest Adnan Darwash]

For some reason, you forgot to mention Indonesia, the largest non-Arab Muslim country. Islam and Mohammed did introduce ideas not known, let alone practiced, by other religions, that is the equality between all people infront of God. Until today, the Imam during prayers turns left and right to see that the faithfuls are standing in one line. In Judaism, Jews believe that they are God's selected few. The Hindi religion divides people into 17 castes depending on what they do. Naturally the ones who don't get their hand dirty, the Brahmas, are ranked on top. Christianity didn't address this issue and Christians went to enslave blacks and to intitutionalise apartheid.

For this reason, many of the oppresses minorities, slaves and the untouchables, became Muslims. Have you ever wondered why Indonesians embraced Islam while no conqueror went there to convert them?

In addition Islam, recognised Judaism and Christianity. Until today, Jews don't recognise neither Christianity nor Islam while Christians don't recognise Judaism or Islam.

The Muslims believe that all the prophets cited in both the Torah and the Bible.

Adnan Darwash

Iraq Occupation Times

[Guest Soldier of God]

From the wisdom of Mike Novak

 

http://www.vatican.va/jubilee_2000/magazine/documents/ju_mag_01111997_p-78_en.html

 

The first contribution of Jesus was to bring Judaism to the Gentiles.

 

Our Creator knows each of us by name, and understands our own individuality with a far greater clarity than we ourselves do; after all, He made us. Each of us reflects a small fragment of God’s identity. If one of us is lost, the image of God intended to be reflected by that one is lost, and His image in the entire race is distorted.

 

For most of its history, Christianity like Judaism flourished in hierarchical societies. While recognizing that all humans are equal in this: that each single person lives and moves under God’s Judgment, Christianity has also rejoiced in the differences among us. God did not make us equal in talent, ability, calling, office, fortune, or graces.

 

In the name of compassion, Christianity tries to humble the mighty, and to prod the rich into concern for the poor. It does not turn the young male away from being a warrior, but it does teach him to model himself on Christ, in order to become a new type of male: The knight bound by a code of compassion, the gentleman. It teaches the warrior to be meek, humble, peaceable, kind, and generous. It introduces a new and faithful tension between the warrior and the gentleman, between magnanimity and humility, between kindness and fierce ambition.

 

Christianity (like Judaism before it) is also the religion of a particular kind of God: Not the Deist who looks down on all things from an olympian height but the God of one chosen people and, in Christianity’s case, a God who became incarnate. The Christian God was carried in the womb of a single woman, among a particular people, at a precise intersection of time and space, and nourished in a local community then practically unknown to the rest of the peoples on this planet.

 

John Adams, our [united States] second president, wrote that in giving us a notion of God as the Source of all truth, and the Judge of all, the Hebrews laid before the human race the possibility of civilization. Before the undeceivable Judgment of God, the Light of Truth cannot be deflected by riches, wealth, or wordly power. Armed with this conviction, Jews and Christians are empowered to use their intellects and to search without fear into the causes of things, their relationships, their powers, and their purposes. This understanding of Truth makes humans free. For Christianity does not teach that Truth is an illusion based upon the opinions of those in power, or merely a rationalization of powerful interests in this world. Christianity is not deconstructionist, and it is certainly not totalitarian. Its commitment to Truth beyond human purposes is, in fact, a rebuke to all totalitarian schemes and all nihilist cynicism.

 

Moreover, by locating Truth (with a capital T) in God, totally beyond our poor powers to comprehend, Christianity empowers human reason. It does so by inviting us to use our heads as best we can, to discern the evidences that bring us as close to Truth as human beings can attain. It endows human beings with a vocation to give play to the unquenchable eros of the desire to understand – that most profoundly restless drive to know that teaches human beings their own finitude and yet, as well, their participation in the infinite.

 

The notion of Truth is crucial to civilization. As Thomas Aquinas held, civilization is constituted by conversation. Civilized persons persuade one another through argument. Barbarians club one another into submission. Civilization requires citizens to recognize that they do not possess the Truth, but must be possessed by it, to the degree possible to them. Truth matters greatly. But Truth is greater than any one of us. Therefore, humans must learn such civilizing habits as being respectful and open to others, listening attentively, trying to see aspects of the Truth that they do not as yet see. Because the search for Truth is vital to each of us, humans must argue with each other, urge each other onward, point out deficiencies in one another’s arguments, and open the way for greater participation in the Truth by every one of us.

 

In this respect, the search for Truth makes us not only humble but also civil. It teaches us why we hold that every single person has an inviolable dignity: Each is made in the image of the Creator to perform such noble acts as understanding, deliberating, choosing, loving. These noble activities of human beings cannot be repressed without repressing in them the Image of God. Such repression is doubly sinful. It violates the other person, and it is an offense against God.

 

One of the ironies of our present age is that the great philosophical carriers of the Enlightenment no longer believe in reason. They have surrendered their confidence in the vocation of Reason to cynics such as to the post-modernists and deconstructionists. Such philosophers (Sophists, Socrates called them) hold that there is no Truth, that all things are relative, and that the great realities of life are power and interest. So we have come to an ironic pass. The children of the Enlightenment have abandoned Reason, while those they have considered unenlightened and living in darkness, the people of Jewish and Christian faith, remain today Reason’s best defenders. For believing Jews and Christians ground their confidence in understanding in the One who understands everything He made – and, besides, loves it. There can be no civilization of reason (or of love) without faith in the vocation of reason.

[Guest chuck]

It appears that there is a.misunderstanding between religions.

[Guest Adnan Darwash]

Talking about the truth: There are 1.5 billion Muslims who recognise Judaism and Christianity. But Christians mention the 12 Million Jews who don't recognise them and ignore the 15.billion Muslims who do. It is the Jewish money that started to distort history and bribe historians. It was only in 1964 that the Catholic Church had exonerated the Jews and rehabilitated them.

Can you possibly imagine that In the coming one hundred year there will be three times as many Muslims as there are today!!!!!

Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times

[Guest Soldier of God]

You might want to rethink your statement Adnan.

 

http://www.vatican.v...-aetate_en.html

 

DECLARATION ON

THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS

NOSTRA AETATE

PROCLAIMED BY HIS HOLINESS

POPE PAUL VI

ON OCTOBER 28, 1965

 

The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

 

Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.

[Guest Mason D]

There are Arab Muslims and Arab Christians, but there are no Arab Jews. Although there are Jewish tribes that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula before and during the advent of Islam.

[Guest ضوء]

Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow) - سورة البقرة

 

2:62

 

Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabeans [before Prophet Muhammad] - those [among them] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness - will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.

 

في الواقع، الذين آمنوا والذين كانوا هودا أو نصارى أو الصابئة [قبل النبي محمد] - تلك [بينهم] الذين آمنوا بالله واليوم الآخر وفعل البر - سوف يكون أجرهم عند ربهم ولا خوف سيكون هناك أن تتعلق بها، كما أنها لا تحزن.

 

2:97

 

Say, "Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel - it is [none but] he who has brought the Qur'an down upon your heart, [O Muhammad], by permission of Allah , confirming that which was before it and as guidance and good tidings for the believers."

 

ويقول: "من هو عدو لجبريل - هو [ولكن لا شيء] والذي أنزل القرآن على قلبك لأسفل، [يا محمد]، بإذن الله، مؤكدا أن الذي كان قبل، وكما التوجيه وجيدة اخبار للمؤمنين ".

 

2:98

 

Whoever is an enemy to Allah and His angels and His messengers and Gabriel and Michael - then indeed, Allah is an enemy to the disbelievers.

 

من هو عدو لله وملائكته ورسله وجبريل وميكال - ثم في الواقع، إن الله عدو للكافرين.

[Luke_Wilbur]

This may be a leap, but it appears the Ebbonite Community is the closest link to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

 

In the beginning the followers of Yeshua (Y'shua, Yahshua, Y'hoshua, Jesus), may he rest in peace, did not worship him or look to him for salvation. They did not turn away, add or subtract from God's commandments (Torah). They worshipped only the God of Israel. In a time when too many of the Jewish elite were conforming to gentile practices and abandoning or compromising the simple laws of God, living off of exploitation of the poor as gentiles do, Yeshua came with a message from God. Like the prophets before him, he identified the sinners, called for repentance and the return (reform) to Torah as a way of righteousness and justice.

 

As God's covenant teaches, to ignore God's covenant instructions (Torah) would bring apostasy, economic collapse, destruction, and exile to his People, as it had in the past. The priesthood and the high priest (appointed by the gentile occupation force of Rome) had failed to be the religious leaders they were charged to be. The king was a puppet of evil Rome, and had adopted pagan values and its pursuit of wealth built on the backs of slaves and the poor.

 

Commerce was god and the rich exploited the lower classes to gather offerings to themselves. Some Pious Jews (Pharisees) tried to keep Torah by accommodating it to allow living Jewish under the boot of gentiles until all their effort went to making new laws to study. Some Jews went to the wilderness, escaping into a world mythological explanations and remedies, waiting for the inevitable collapse (Essenes). Some became freedom fighters (or terrorists) against the Romans and gentiles. Many wished for a messiah that would show them the way to end pagan domination, usually through armed resistance.

 

Yeshua pushed the veil of this world aside to see and teach that there is only God, His Covenant, and People of that Covenant, and that this relationship could be restored at any time. It waited in the wings, ready to burst forth whenever people would accept God's Reign instead of corruptible kings, priests, and retainers of the gentile status quo driven by wealth and exploitation.

 

He tried to show that if God's Torah was internalized―the Covenant renewed and written on the heart―and all other authority was rejected as invalid, and illegitimate, then coercion, violence, greed, exploitation, injustice, falseness, and even government would fall away like scales from our eyes. The blessings of the Covenant would be realized, Israel would become the light to all the gentiles, and they too would turn to the God of Israel. In this way, every man would be anointed by God, as he was, and the spirit of holiness―the heart opened to the Creator of the universe and to His good creation, world within world, world without end―would guide us to repair the world and be partners with God, tending the world like a garden. This man, Yeshua, the son of Yoseif and Maryam, was a prophet who proclaimed God and His way to save us from a planet outside of a relationship with God, was embraced by many of the exploited poor ('evyonim) crying out for God's justice. After his anti-authority teachings made him a threat to the authoritarian rule of Rome, he was arrested and executed as most insurrectionists were. His movement continued after his death, led by a few close followers and his brother Ya`aqov (James) in economic cooperative communities remembering and honoring Yeshua as their anointed teacher, prophet, and martyr. This was a Jewish movement in every way. (And the Ebionites of today are still biblically observant Jews, circumcised according to Covenant with God.)

 

But then something happened. We can never be quite sure how it came about whether due to guilt, psychosis, the desire to bring a merger of Jewish and gentile culture (Hellenism), a pagan reinterpretation of scripture, induced hallucinations (or visions), as a scheme to pacify Yeshua's movement by the Romans, or simply ignorance of scripture, or a combination of all of these. But as a result came Christianity, a religion devised by Paul of Tarsus and his followers as a direct perversion of Yeshua's movement and an attack on Israel and its God. One need only look at Christianity's pagan theology and syncretistic practices, and its history of persecution of God's Chosen People, and insatiable hunger for souls, nations, and wealth; the ruthless imposition of its religious authority; its imposed censorship of any view but its own; the millions, and millions of dead sacrificed to its god, and know that the Christian religion is not of God.

 

http://ebionite.org/

[Guest Think Speak]

One of the first men to believe in the prophethood of Muhammad was an Ebionite monk named Waraqah ibn Nawfal, whom Muslims highly honor as a pious man with deep knowledge of the Christian scriptures. Waraka ibn Nawfal was the parental cousin of Khadija, the first wife of the prophet Muhammad, and was also the son of Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf's half brother Nawfal ibn Abd Manaf.

 

Waraka would frequently contemplate and pray at the Kaaba and began to read the Biblical texts in their original language and even learned to read Hebrew. Around this time, Waraka, with another member of his tribe, is said to have found Muhammad as a young infant and immediately returned him to Abdul Muttalib. As Muhammad grew in age, Waraka's knowledge of the sacred scriptures increased. Several years later, when told of Muhammad's first revelation (which is understood to be Q. XCVI: 1-5), Waraka recognized his call to prophecy as authentic and tradition recounts Waraka saying: "There has come to him the greatest Law that came to Moses; surely he is the prophet of this people."

 

Waraka, upon accepting Muhammad's prophecy, remained a Christian and, in later accounts, was counted among Muhammad's companions. Muhammad is later said to have said of Waraka: "Do not slander Waraka ibn Nawfal, for I have seen that he will have one or two gardens in Paradise."

[Guest wiki]

In Islamic belief, the disciples (Arabic الحواريون al-Hawāriyūn) of Jesus were Muslims and they themselves testified to being Muslims. Muslims also believe that all of Jesus's disciples were from the Children of Israel, in accordance with their belief that Jesus was the last prophet and messenger sent to guide the Children of Israel.

 

The Muslim exegesis, however, more-or-less agrees with the New Testament list and says that the disciples included Peter, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, Andrew, James, Jude, John and Simon the Zealot. Scholars generally draw a parallel with the disciples of Jesus and the disciples of Muhammad, who followed Muhammad during his lifetime.

 

The great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun denotes in his History that Bartholomew made missionary trips to the land of the Arabs and Hijaz.

 

According to the Twelver Shia, a female descendant of the disciple Saint Peter, named Narjis, became the wife of the 11th Imam Hasan al-Askari. This marriage produced a son who would become the 12th and final Imam, named Muhammad al-Mahdi.

[Guest Mason D]

I have read that Waraqah ibn Nawfal was the Bishop of Mecca.

[Guest Winged Sun]

This may be a leap, but it appears the Ebbonite Community is the closest link to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

 

Spiritual like scientific evolution is difficult to see through a small window of time.

 

I & Father Are Same, Son Of God, Messenger Of God

 

To a deserving devotee, Jesus told He and His father are one and the same. When Jesus saw a devotee who was slightly affected by jealousy and egoism, Jesus came down by one step saying that He was the son of the God. The word son is indicating that He is different from the God but the same spirit is present in both like the same blood in the father and the son. This means that He is different and smaller than the God but at the same time has the same essence. It is like the relationship between the mighty ocean and the tiny water drop. The father is major and the son is minor component. They resemble qualitatively but differ quantitatively. This is the visishta advaita of Ramanuja.

 

When Jesus met a devotee who is fully bacterialised by jealousy and egoism He told that He was the humble messenger of God. This is the Dvaita of Madhva. Therefore the human incarnation will declare its level based on the level of the receiver. Mohammad told that He is the messenger of the Lord. Thus there is a gradual degradation of spiritual obedience and the gradual growth of jealousy and egoism. Jesus stands as a transition bridge between the Advaita of Krishna and Dvaita of Mohammad.

[Guest Herodotus]

Jesus was a Jew. The Apostles were Jews. The New Covenant whereby Jesus was proclaimed the Messiah was written by Jews.

[Guest A Thought]

It is a travesty that leaders endorse teaching children to hate. I wish the children of the leaders of all opposition parties played together for a several weeks.

[Luke_Wilbur]

I came by this quote from the Book of Mathew, Chapter 11, Verse 25

 

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do."

 

[Guest Guest]

This may be a leap, but it appears the Ebbonite Community is the closest link to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

 

One of the first men to believe in the prophethood of Muhammad was an Ebionite monk named Waraqah ibn Nawfal, whom Muslims highly honor as a pious man with deep knowledge of the Christian scriptures. Waraka ibn Nawfal was the parental cousin of Khadija, the first wife of the prophet Muhammad, and was also the son of Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf's half brother Nawfal ibn Abd Manaf.

 

Waraka would frequently contemplate and pray at the Kaaba and began to read the Biblical texts in their original language and even learned to read Hebrew. Around this time, Waraka, with another member of his tribe, is said to have found Muhammad as a young infant and immediately returned him to Abdul Muttalib. As Muhammad grew in age, Waraka's knowledge of the sacred scriptures increased. Several years later, when told of Muhammad's first revelation (which is understood to be Q. XCVI: 1-5), Waraka recognized his call to prophecy as authentic and tradition recounts Waraka saying: "There has come to him the greatest Law that came to Moses; surely he is the prophet of this people."

 

Waraka, upon accepting Muhammad's prophecy, remained a Christian and, in later accounts, was counted among Muhammad's companions. Muhammad is later said to have said of Waraka: "Do not slander Waraka ibn Nawfal, for I have seen that he will have one or two gardens in Paradise."

 

In Islamic belief, the disciples (Arabic الحواريون al-Hawāriyūn) of Jesus were Muslims and they themselves testified to being Muslims. Muslims also believe that all of Jesus's disciples were from the Children of Israel, in accordance with their belief that Jesus was the last prophet and messenger sent to guide the Children of Israel.

 

The Muslim exegesis, however, more-or-less agrees with the New Testament list and says that the disciples included Peter, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, Andrew, James, Jude, John and Simon the Zealot. Scholars generally draw a parallel with the disciples of Jesus and the disciples of Muhammad, who followed Muhammad during his lifetime.

 

The great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun denotes in his History that Bartholomew made missionary trips to the land of the Arabs and Hijaz.

 

According to the Twelver Shia, a female descendant of the disciple Saint Peter, named Narjis, became the wife of the 11th Imam Hasan al-Askari. This marriage produced a son who would become the 12th and final Imam, named Muhammad al-Mahdi.

I have read that Waraqah ibn Nawfal was the Bishop of Mecca.

 

The Ebionites are described as:

 

A sect of heretics developed from among the Judaizing Christians of apostolic times late in the first or early in the second century. They accepted Christianity only as a reformed Judaism, and believed in our Blessed Lord only as a mere natural man spiritually perfected by exact observance of the Mosaic law.

[Luke_Wilbur]

I think the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem has the right idea of bringing Christian and Muslim children together to celebrate the Advent Season.

 

http://en.lpj.org/20...usand-children/

 

 

 

More than a thousand children gathered on Thursday, December 6, 2012, for their traditional march to the Nativity cave of Bethlehem. It is a beautiful tradition of inviting children of Palestinian villages for a peace march to the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem.