Safi & Eman Kaskas with Brad & Eden Jersak

well this is a very special day for me it's the first time that I get to have a face-to-face live meeting even though it's over the screen with my friend Saffy kaskus and and now we also got to meet each other's wives and so we want to introduce them why don't you start over there and well you can introduce yourself right a man I'm a man married to Saffy for 45 years and we are partners and many aspects including our faith journey we are Muslims and we both follow Jesus and I supported south his project of translating the Koran because we both believe in in it and believe in the objective that this translation would would help us achieve and bring in a better understanding among people of faith of who we are so we have it we have this calling in life both of us and we are on this journey together totally and completely we believe in the same things we don't always agree on the the journey getting to it but it's been a nice journey and I'm grateful for the opportunity that the Lord has given us to partner alive into partner for this course oh that's wonderful um even why don't you jump in now and just introduce yourself to them a little bit and who you are what you're into sure um well I love your intro Iman it's there's a lot that I can agree with in in telling the same story that you know Brad and I have been married for its close to thirty four years now and we have been partners and journey mates on a a lot of fronts including our faith and you know especially in this last while while we are locked up together I'm happy to be stuck with him and you know happy to you know be in the house together having conversations that come up around and Lee what do you think of this what do you think of that and listening to him read things that he's just been writing and I I'm really glad that as humans we can experience relationships where the longer we have them the more there is still to discover and it's fascinating to me and I think it's very hope filled as well we have co-led in churches and and led separately in churches and currently we actually go to different churches which was something I never imagined but it doesn't it has not created any division in us in some ways it has actually raised each of us up in quite an amazing way kind of having a little bit of our own space and and we're never you know having any sort of tension over why do you believe that or why do you believe that because we are invested in each other and we believe in the same God and so anyways I'm really pleased to meet you guys today brad has spoken very highly of me Safi and you've been an encouragement and I wanted to thank you both as well you had texted or phoned or something a while back and had said you know our family was on your heart and that you had been praying for us and I have been going through some medical issues and you'd said well we're praying for you today and like that really moved me it was so encouraging and such a loving thing to do and I just wanted to say my heartfelt thank you before prank furry not quite yet but there's hope yeah thank you so um in that briefing set of introductions I think we're all ready we've already established a number of surprises that I want to explore with you by way of conversation and so you the fact that we would see one another as brothers and sisters will surprise some people both Muslim and Christian the fact that you would be praying for us might surprise some people but also that you are that you're followers of Jesus and Muslims is it would be news to a lot of Christians they're like well wait a minute how can that be right and so maybe we could start with some of these which I just I think it's wonderful but so here's B my first question about that is on what basis do we call one another brothers and sisters in the Lord well the least the the least of the basis there are many basis the least of them is our humanity yes we are both created by the same creator and in my tradition this creator said in the Koran that he had he had honored all the children of Adam all of them the least I can do to honor whom he honored is to love them yeah there is no way out of it nobody can whistle away from love regardless which direction they go they have to come back and face themselves and look at the mirror and say am i doing what the Lord has truly asked me to do and that's to love other people to honor them to respect them to deal with them as people that are dear to their Creator otherwise you would have created them look at the multiple chances that were taken before I was born I mean I wasn't an accident I was meant to be born the same way you were meant to be born now your ideas and my ideas where the Lord wants you to be and where the Lord wants me to be brought us together the least I can do is to honor that the least now I'm enjoying it and I am very joyful at it and I'm celebrating it all the time I truly love you you know I know thank you it's mutual look at who the Lord brought me it's the gift you know and now I have to you an atom so so that's one layer the layer of that were both free we're humans together no there's other layers too right yeah ha yes indeed the higher the higher layers it is one layer but you know Jesus said on this aspect falls all the lows of all the prophets so he reminded us of how important that is in the Quran States in a verse that is near to my heart also and it appears on chapter 2 and chapter 3 of the Quran say we believe in God and what he revealed to us and what he revealed to Abraham Ishmael Isaac Jacob and the tribes and the teaching of Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their God we do not differentiate between any of them and we are all to him submissive and then again Prophet Muhammad said you do not believe unless you love for your brother what you love for yourself so Jesus told us it summarized it summarized the whole aspect of believing and the Quran confirm with telling us that God does not differentiate between the believers no matter who their prophet was as long as they are following God through the message or the scriptures of their prophet than God and the Quran tells me that they are submissive which is the way Safi translated the word Muslim moon which is plural for Muslim so to me that two are the same following Jesus is the same as that diversity that the Quran provide for us to love one another and to believe in God and through our journey that we just happened to be walking through very good yes can I have a small comment on what Iman said yes a funny note yes [Laughter] intentionally I never translated the word Islam as an as a noun for a man and I the word islam was always like a continuous now it's an electronegative noun but it's like a verb to be to be a Muslim is to continue all the time to try to submit yourself to your creators Willie and you fall short and you fall short you try again you get up and you try again and it's a continuous one time I told a follower of Jesus of Jesus from a Christian background I think you're a Muslim and he really showed the most understanding of what the word means he said my dear I try every day in every day I fall sure but I get up the next day and try again and I said oh my god that is a true connection with the Lord in a true understanding of what the word means that not everyone internalizes right so now you you've introduced this idea that I think will be mind-blowing for many Christians and that is that you you follow Jesus and that this is an important part of your faith yeah and what what do you want to tell us about that for those who've never heard of support I also considered I consider people who are not calling themselves Muslim but they do believe in God to be Muslim so there is that intertwine that happens among us people who truly are trying to follow the Lord and to be truthful to ourself in the way we seek Him so for me Jesus was hijacked by Christianity because he is universal he didn't come to be branded a certain name I think when he comes back he's going to reject that not totally and completely because he is for everyone he talked to the woman at the well he talked to us about the prostitute about those people that were forgotten Good Samaritan story all of these stories about how Jesus is beyond the establishment it's love also was hijacked by Muslim because it became a noun it became a name no longer that action-oriented word that means that you really have to try that it's not a given that you are a Muslim so that term was hijacked in a similar fashion by Muslim like this is why sakis translation with fresh eyes to the Quran makes a whole lot of difference it's revolutionary in my opinion because it brings these things under the microscope in it project the light on them for people to understand that these are not words to be memorized and repeated these are work to internalize and to ponder on and to really learn from know that was wonderful I have a question related to this because it really it feels like something that happened to me yesterday I was in a podcast and they said we want you to we were gonna ask you yes and no questions and and then they said later you can nuance the answers but for now I want yes or no and they asked me are you a Christian and I paused for a long time and I had to say no for this reason right because Christian as a noun is is has become this it's a very small institution in terms of the the heart of God and so later I was able to say what if we were to treat Christian as a as an adjective then I won't claim that because I I don't follow Jesus very well but maybe you could ask my neighbors is he Christian right and that would be similar like are you yeah so yes I identify with the Jesus story but Christian as a club an exclusive club makes no sense to me but if it were an adjective describing how I live well maybe I'm still not but at least we will let my neighbors decide right we'll let you decide yeah I did not forget your question we need to get back to it what does it mean for me to follow Jesus but again see it's necessary to mention some stories that would lead to that after 9/11 Iman met doc oh I don't know if you know who doc Poe is he's the guy that used to put the prayer breakfast together ah action or prayer breakfast and he has a group they are called the family and a man met them in a in a prayer meeting that he met them and then I met him Rocco didn't used to call himself a Christian although he used to be considered the fifth evangelical leader in the United States with influence and so on why because he considered himself purely a follower of Jesus to him Christianity didn't mean anything Jesus meant everything in a sense he and I walk together I learned from him a lot and I tried to also share what I my belief with him so a man and I in a sense spent a lot of time this particular person god bless his soul he is dead now is his god but we still have tremendous good memories of of the years we walked with him we talk to him we learn from him and we shared with him and we miss him very much we miss him very much indeed because he's the first one that gave me hope 9/11 you know after 9/11 I was shocked that the President of the United States who claimed to be a Christian who told his father I listened to the higher father he told his own father President Bush told his own father President Bush I listened to a higher father then his response on 9/11 was not a response of love yeah it was either a with us or against us yeah and I have no doubt that hundreds of thousands of people innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan died as a result of his actions yeah innocent people means had nothing to do with this you know I mean why did they die nobody knows Iraq is in ruins now if if he was a true follower of Jesus his response would have been different as a matter of fact from my own studies I don't know if I'm correct or not I haven't found a single leader in history that responded to his enemies would love not one stood up and said I'm going to love you instead of fighting you instead of conquering you of crushing you I'm going to love you this respond in my mind will change the world yes did not happen we had that chance after 9/11 I mean God gave the President of the United States on a silver platter a chance to show the world what following Jesus means and we missed it and taco brought me back he anchored me in truly what Jesus taught instead of feeling anguish and anger and all of this he said calm down this is a test that this guy missed we shouldn't miss you didn't miss you're still loving your enemies regardless how much insults they throw at you you're gonna respond with love and I appreciate that you know that that's very valuable as far as I'm concerned so following following Jesus following Jesus to me means to start with regardless how anybody understands Jesus I understand Jesus to be the miracle of miracles this from the Quran not my own thinking his his conception was a miracle his birth was a miracle in the Quran immediately after he was born he spoke in the as far as the Quran is concerned and that's a miracle gone his martyrdom was I mean a young virgin from the Middle East raised among people with piety and you know and suddenly she is pregnant and having a child so anyway he performed miracles throughout his life and probably the beauty tools and the Sermon on the mountain skills summarized his teachings yes and I love them I cannot see I cannot disagree with anything that's in the red letters so it's very ironic I bring this up with nowadays because I have quoted red letters to Christians specifically about enemy love and they told me I was dangerously naive and I said yeah I was quoting the red letters and so now here we are I'm talking to Jesus following Muslims but I'm also having to deal with non Jesus following Christian yes and it seems to me that like I really believe you're right about that the Sermon on the Mount really encapsulates Jesus teachings and when I have to when I'm assessing he says judge you know don't judge but observe people buy the fruit right and so at the end of the Sermon on the Mount it says here's the wise person who builds their house on the rock they hear these words of mine and put them into practice that's a Jesus follower and it sounds like well what I know of you you did this beautiful commentary on the Beatitudes for Clarion journal with us and taking taking Jesus seriously not just believing in him you know as an idea but believing what he said that this is how we're gonna change the world he gave me a plan to live by yeah I found the same plan laid out in the Quran but that plan in the Quran is not is not said in simple easy-to-understand direct language the way Jesus spoke about its plan for me you know all there in the Quran but you really have to contemplate you have to think you have to find it for instance loving your enemy I had to look for it right away I mean Jesus says to love your enemy and I know this is not something easy it's not something for the faint of heart it's not something for but then is it in the Quran yes I went and looked for it and I found it you know and I found it in tremendous language but unfortunately it's not repeated every day it's not part of the culture that the Muslims have for their daily life until a man or I remind them that it's there all kind is like stop you know yeah yeah sure you know one day Brad I was commenting on something on Facebook and I said I said to respond in love this woman responded but this is for Christian it's not for Muslims I mean regardless of her or what she said it tells me the general attitude out with the people and Industry people average people they think of us and then they are thinking that we are all created by the same creator and we are created so it's a test for us to test our hearts are we going to grow up and love each other or are we going to reject it at each other and he said he's going to judge us for this you know at one time in their in their in the hereafter but people don't have that consciously they're not thinking of only the blessed I think get it in his heart or in her heart that this is something real oh yeah I'm going to be resurrected in reality and I'm going to face my creator and that's real and he's gonna ask me for sure and I cannot lie then you know right so our our you know we've got years and years centuries of conflict both in terms of theological debate but also just downright like military hostility and all that but we're finding an ethical unity around compassion and love or that that seems to be the basis then for our unity together it's the whole it's the whole if we can set an example for others others will follow you know let me take it a bit wider than this okay I've been in touch with evangelicals for at least 10 years more than that at one time I had a conversation with 300 evangelical young leader online Karl Medeiros led that conversation I don't know if you know Karl he conversation and there they were all his friends and they were asking me questions and see my purpose of talking to them at that time is very simple if in the United States where we have the freedom to think and the freedom to act if we here in United States we can build true bridges between evangelicals and Muslims then we can be an example for the rest of the world to follow right sin again 9/11 was a major failure for the humanity - to reinvent itself if we start at the tragedy we didn't go beyond the tragedy - to reconciliation and bridge building and it's very very important in God's eye I think to take any event and try to see the positive in it and build on the data rather than the stuff at the tragedy and cry all the time or talk about the bad luck we had or those others who are terrible and you know so anyway I wanted to build bridges because I thought this is the place United States is the place where we can think freely we can exchange freely I can say I'm a Jesus follower without any fear that someone will say why well this is my ride you know my Constitution you know if you like it go and get yourself a constitution and you enjoy freedom but I enjoy the freedom this Constitution give me let's use it let's use this freedom to build bridges to build something constructive so we can move together rather than separate see we are people of faith we so I see you the same way I see a man the same way I see all my believing friends mercy akin is one of them yes because of her heart it now so all my believing friends our brothers and sisters to me we need to move together not separately we shouldn't let issues separate us the main issue is we are recognizing that the Creator is our Creator and we owe him he deserved that we worship Him because he's worth it you know you deserve it yeah so you brought up the word freedom here now a number of times so what I'd like to do for a moment is and then we're gonna get to I want to get to things like women in Islam and so on but um at one time you said online that you believe the essence of the Koran is freed us freedom yes can you tell us about that that was neutral definitely you know I worked on the Quran six years continuously full time from fajar prayer which is before sunrise all the way to 10:30 11 o'clock at night everyday no weekends and I was determined to finish that project because I felt that I was honored to do it it's an honor for me that I was entrusted to do this but then after I finish working on the translation like couple of months later I stopped and asked myself what did I learn from this book what is it trying to tell me what's the essence of that book and I you really thought about it and then a word came to my mind I didn't invent it it was an answer to my question what's the essence of the Quran that word was freedom I created you so you can come to me freely with your free will if one of you is forced to come to me it doesn't count I created you I gave you consciousness gave you a free will so you can use it and the reason use your reason your intellect so you can come to me freely this is why I created you so I said consequently freedom is the essence of the Quran that's that that's that's really important I've been meditating at a lot just how crazy go ahead Iman there is a verse in the Quran that I think it's worthwhile stating it says mention of aluminum and Chia whoever wants can believe and whoever wants to reject believe I mean it's there yeah many many verses in the Quran tells you that you're free another verse which is D on a deeper level God has a will he says in the Quran he can create anything he wants anything he wants to create and then he said I gave you a will what he gave me a will Wow what should I do with that will well decide on the rest of my life I'm always you and I and all of us everybody when when anytime we were faced with a choice will between two choices only there is no third I've been challenging people around the world to come out with a third alternative none exists am i doing it like this interview am i doing it to please God or am i doing it so maybe other people would say oh he's so nice look he loves Jesus and you know like the Pharisees used to do like Jesus said about fasting don't fast so people can see you and you know so anyway this is the first choice am i doing it to please God or to please work my selfishness my own ego there is no third choice it's either this or that every act seven days a week all year long my whole life it's between these two choices so um God conscious in Arabic this God conscious is a term in Arabic called Pacwa taqwa is a concept you need to know that cancer brain taqwa means taking shelter from like a park in Makkah in Arabic means take shelter because it's raining okay open an umbrella it took a layer take shelter of means run away from him into him it's a pain if I translate the concept it's a world but in the Quran is full of that word the purpose of all acts of worship the Quran tells me is taqwa it's God consciousness the purpose of all act and fasting nam he - fasting we're going through Ramadan need and purpose the Quran says the purpose of your fasting is that you reach taqwa that consciousness one hwacha what's the ultimate purpose of God consciousness is to build peace Wow so people can read it the Quran read the Quran is not a joke the Quran is a very serious revelation when I say I believe in it not because I'm simple or because I'm naive look before I translated the Quran I spent three years looking to see if they have any first century original copies first Islamic century that now seventh Gregorian three years going from one place to the other examining manuscripts until I found there three that I was sure will suffice I started examining new printed copies of the Quran from China all the way to Morocco and I found that there are no differences between them hmm then I decided to embark on the translation of the Quran I did not want to spend my time dedicating my time to a book that has question marks in it so I when I tell you I take it very seriously is because it's worth being taken seriously you know people can read it you can understand it and you can read it and understand it on various level what we just talked about those concepts you just mentioned they're not something that you can start somebody on the streets in Cairo and say what's taqwa he will not know you will not know we will probably understand it on a certain level but would not be what we just discussed okay yeah well I want to pause there just to promote your translation I think you know because I believe we're brothers and sisters in the Lord I want to understand where you're coming from and so I got a translation of the your translation of the Quran and I'm really grateful for it and I would want others to pick that up there's actually an edition of it that has biblical what you call cross references in the footnotes and and they can get that big where is the best place for the for them to pick that up usually it is Amazon but if they want a copy that is signed yes they need attacked me and I would send them one directly what is last way to contact you on Facebook okay Facebook I'm all over the Facebook or or my email you know yet you can find both my facebook page and my email on the Internet okay yeah so that was a I'll go ahead sake 15:15 minister got together and decided to get copies of that quran translation with references to the Bible three weeks ago three weeks ago we send it to them and you know it's amazing the first 1000 copies first order was for 1000 copies that were purchased by a Christian foundation that own schools and they wanted them for their schools so Brad only the squeaking will get degrees they have their million of American evangelicals who are brothers and sisters to us we just don't hear from them a lot you know that make it too much noise we hear a lot from those who are carrying and standing up in front of the governor's office somewhere in a state it and making all kind of noise but those that are loving that are peaceful that think about the Lord all the time and think of me as a brother and a man as a sister we don't hear much from them you know but the country is full of them we need to count on that we know they're there yeah the the smallest seed will become a great plant and the eleven will permeate it um let's just shift now a little bit so I am aware of how within Christianity there's a long history of the oppression of women and and Eden is a good example of someone who walks in in the freedom that I believe Jesus gave but there's also this misconception from that that Islam is oppressive of women and that we really associate that and maybe because we see we see news the news items or we see we have cultures that women really are oppressed but I'm looking at Iman and you you seem quite liberated to me what do you want to tell us about being a female in your faith you know I don't think God wants women to feel oppressed that I know for a fact and the Koran tells me that repeatedly traffic Mohammed married Khadija who was a business woman and she was independent that was his wife for 25 years he was working for her and because of his honesty she decided to marry him she asked him to marry her so that tells you that women are not creatures in our culture to be considered as oppressed I don't see that even in Saudi Arabia where I live I mean women right now are doing amazing things very extremely independent I looked at Jesus for example and see how God honoring him with his mother how also that that that I think about the woman that found him after he was buried and he had risen and it was woman that stood by him and cared for him when he needed that help so I think God loves women and honors them by giving them things to do that our way heart moving in heart touching the Quran when it's giving commands it's addressing men and women equally there are repeated verses in the Quran where we are called upon on an equal footing with the men that we are not less now culture is a different story our part of the world was under the Ottoman occupation for many many years I mean I'm talking now about Islamic and ottoman and what people thought Islam to be and so they thought that woman's place was not in the forefront they needed to be hidden because they represented certain honor or lack of honor to the man so it's not about God in the way he looked at us it's about how men feel about themselves and respect to women Christianity at the same situation in the midst in the Middle Ages considered women to have no soul and that they needed also to be hidden and that they couldn't be out there and the forefront so these are all culture they are not of God the way I read the Quran I see tremendous honor given to women and I see women have taken place yes they have to fight for it I look at Egypt for example as an example and I look at that that we call it manpower it's really men and women power that is equal that almost every woman there is a working woman Saudi Arabia took a little bit longer but now women have taken their place in the work in forced Lebanon has always been an open place where women had their rights given to them so I would say it's cultural and cultural cultural things have tendency to alienate women and leave them on the like my standard as opposed to giving number when we think about it we know that woman raises the family woman is the cornerstone the bad rest of the families nothing happened without her presence without a mother a woman a female presence in the home family as we know it will collapse and so therefore it's a very important role that I don't see Islam as taking it away from her but in giving it so much importance can I add few things here although I'm not a woman but yes please we have to judge things in context we cannot take things out of context and then say Islam does this or Islam does that when Islam was born in the seventh century some woman like rhodesia that the woman who was in business who asked the prophets hand in marriage had privileges because they were wealthy so wealth was the name of the game if you're wealthy you have privileges but if you're not wealthy you're less than a commodity prostitution was rampant at that time people women did not inherit will not allow to inherit will not allow to read were not allowed to have any position of leadership and the Quran gave them all this so if you take it in context the Quran created a revolution in the seventh century but then that Revolution ended few years later when muslims built an empire the umpires have a corruptive influence on the people when Constantine decided Christianity should be the religion of the Empire Christians became something different than what they used to be before that when when Muslims build an empire Islam lost a lot of its spirituality and it became less realistic as far as men and women are concerned women were men were upfront they were leading they were doing everything and women were pushed to the back but up to that moment several women were leaders among Muslim teaching Muslims their religion among them Aisha after Khadijah died the Prophet married Aisha I lived with him for many years until he died and then she was a source of information about how the Prophet did this what did he say about that and so on so they were yielding to her to her opinion about the Prophet and she was a leader but then with the Empire all that subsided women became less important then that today's culture in the Middle East does not give women any importance at all regardless of what a man is mentioned about women making strides but the generation I grew up with I was born in 44 let's say until 1960 women didn't have any influence on anything you know but this is not the culture of Islam is the culture of Arabism in the Middle East that the death but but the Prophet that said something that we eat we need to stop and think about very carefully he said heaven which is the ultimate purpose of the life of a Muslim all my hope is to get to heaven he said heaven under your mother's feet so if you want to get to heaven if you want to be in heaven sit on her feet hug them and kiss them so how can anybody disrespect his mother especially after the Prophet told him not only that she is your mother that you naturally have allegiance to her but she controls heaven there under her feet if she is happy with you you're gonna get there if she's upset with you you're not gonna see it I heard so many things ensured that about what I can't do I couldn't get into business I couldn't do anything charity I just could not be myself I had to be closed and and that's all what I continuously heard from anybody I met during those years since then I've accomplished so much in I humbly would say this just to make the point I became president of an organization I've done so many charity I had our Diagnostic Imaging Center and became the CEO of American health care and management company and I've said to people I will continue to do what I need to do until somebody stops me and in all those years since then no one has come to me and said you can't do what you are doing so a lot of it comes from woman hearing certain things that are really created by men and believing it and taking a backseat and not living up to their full potential so it really depends on whether the person or the woman has it in her to achieve and I think that exists anywhere really I look around me in the Middle East like I said to me Egypt is an example they have a lot of problems but there is one thing about and that woman is a is equal in the marketplace now when I came here and said in the mid 70s this was my first time arriving to the US I arrived in 1975 there was something that surprised me tremendously there was a campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment and it was led by many first persons from Hollywood and I was used to tell Saffy I was astonished women in this country don't have their equal rights status how can that be and what if what surprised me even more is the fact that that failed to be voted into the Constitution and then I was told later that you have to wait 25 years to try to amend the Constitution again you can't do it like the following year you have to wait after you've tried and failed you have to wait for 25 more years that have always been a source of bewilderment to me yet I look around and see that woman did take their equal right potential despite despite the lack of legality of giving to them because they worked hard because they put themselves out there and they tested the water again and again and again until we know now there are so many women CEOs in the back country and I see the same situation happening in the Middle East when I first got to Saudi Arabia there were no women in the workforce none now there are women that are CEO of their companies and they are doing taking a tremendous drive in moving forward and they are equal partner so it's really it's not this situation is not unique to the Middle East I think this situation existed all over the world and it continued to be a challenge in many parts of the world and it has nothing to do with religion I feel God gave us our due rights and it just it reflects on each of us individually Eden why don't you unmute do you have any questions or comments at this point especially relative to this I think you're still moving yeah there you go now you can I got it first of all I'm cheering you on Iman like wow that is fantastic and I'm probably just behind you but I think you've cloud a lot of ground for women like me and you you probably have budded you know had to till the soil ahead and then all these other seeds and women can come along behind you and I just want to say thank you for the effort and the success that you have had on behalf of many other women just women in general of any faith or no faith at all I'm I'm really extremely proud of you and I've only just met you but I wish we weren't facing off between screens here actually yeah this is a this is a really fascinating thing to hear Oh even I've had men that refused to talk to me because I'm not covered in the place of work in Saudi Arabia sway it I've had that happen and usually because I insisted one time there was a man holding a baby and his wife was about to go in for an x-ray and he insisted he wanted to go in with her and holding the baby and I refused to allow him I said I'm sorry you can't go especially you have a baby you're holding a baby there's no way I will allow you well of course he for women that can give her opinion and give order like this is something he is not accustomed to and he would not look at me when he was speaking to me he's turning the other way so but I insisted and my my commands stood and he wasn't able she usually gets her way and I spent him an Egyptian technician that was covered a female I said she will go in with her he was concerned because the technician for the x-ray was a male I said here is a woman that can go and be with your wife but you are not allowed to go in and it's something that he has never experienced before and when the ignition came back to me she told me he was going on and on about woman but our speaking there might like I have but it doesn't matter it doesn't matter if we live our principle it doesn't matter what other people eventually they'll catch up and I think this is what is happening people are reacting I totally agree i I think you know for in my life I have had some situations where there was resistance will call it resistance to me playing a role that you know I let a church I I was the lead pastor and we we had a team so it wasn't quite so lofty as all that but there was resistance at times and I think you have to just realize as a woman that that's not going to be the last word that really you can go past that and you can let something slide or recognize that that person is just in the midst of their own process and some day maybe and maybe it will only be in heaven that they will recognize oh I missed a point here I missed a spot where I could bless someone but I most of my experience has been where where men have opened the door for me and where you know so even even taking leadership of the of the church Brad had been the pastor until I took over he had a Burnout and the leadership team came to me to ask would you consider taking the lead of the church and and I felt I really needed to pray about this and so I took a couple of weeks and then I felt like God was saying this is what I have for you I want you to take this and so in obedience but reluctance as well I chose to follow where Jesus was calling me and I had five glorious years where really I can only recall one or two times where anyone said anything kind of questioning or kind of a bit of a backlash most of the time it was men and women together expressing their love for me for my role for what I brought and I didn't take the role to be that I needed to fill Brad's shoes and act like a man but that my role was meant to be excuse me to be me leading fully a woman with all the components of my feminine self and we were as a little church we were in a place where we were hurting we were we were suffering and God just said to me they need a mother right now and I and so I just said oh I know how to mother I have three boys I can do this and as soon as he kind of laid out that track for me I realized oh this is not about trying to be as powerful as I can it is about nurturing loving caring and helping this community to heal and it was it was glorious not because of the power I had but because of the reaction of people coming back to me and just expressing how much they loved me it was incredible and actually there was several times when there was guests in the congregation and they would come to me afterwards and they'd said your congregation really loves you and I said and I really love them but what's most fascinating about this is that I said you know this is my this is a little window leading here but I said there are individuals who have led congregations and multiple congregations their entire lives and they have never been loved in not one of those places I wish that every person who has had to lead especially in a faith community would have just one experience where in that community they were loved so beautifully that they didn't have to constantly be questioning their own value to take that part I know that's not easy responsibility and that's amazing she brought healing to the congregation while she was also having to carry me a little bit you know through the oh yeah we're running out of time but I would like to I'd like to ask one last question is just about what it is you'd want Christians to know about the Prophet Mohammed because Christians often have misconceptions about about him yeah and then oh and then you can add anything else you want after that yes I want Christian to know that Prophet Muhammad is not what they think he is because the mediator sold them bag of beans and they're all bought into it [Music] rocket Mohammad is not a terrorist is not a womanizer is not an aggressive guy who go and raid his neighbor's he is not a thief who steals from his neighbors I've heard all these things said about him you know and he is not the person that I thought I loved the person that I think I tried to imitate his way of life in everything I do I think he and Jesus in in many different ways are two faces to the same coin I know cuz she will get Chuck hearing this but please take your time look into it this is my feeling I'm being candid sharing it with you you know so just take it for whatever it is yeah he's a guy that taught me to be humble I say what Jesus did taught me to love everybody else say who it is he taught me to love my Christian neighbors many Muslims think they have a superiority complex which I talked about this yesterday on Facebook they think because they have the last revelations they are better than anybody else they understand that after Islam everybody else should be a Muslim no other religion should be accepted well that contradict the Quran the Quran in the Quran God's saying it I wanted to create one community I would have made you all one community with one faith but I made you several community so you can teach each other push like iron sharpening iron you know this this pushing of ideas we are different so let's see who has the better idea and then he says so you can race each other toward serving each other and doing good this is in 5:48 in the quran you compensate a competition of servanthood right yes yes on his deathbed he asked his disciples to take especially care of the woman he repeated it he said I am asking you to care for the woman so that is near and dear to my heart what's the other thing he has two prayers yes and women these are the two things he was on his deathbed on his that's not so I would advise people to learn about him to read about him well what book would you recommend Karen Armstrong for our times she has a very good biography I start with that I move to many others they can look at several and and compare for themselves I want to say one of the things that hurt me the most about being here and the US and being targeted as a Muslim is the fact that Safi and I have learned and studied the Old Testament and the New Testament and compared the Koran to it we did so much homework for the purpose of reconciliation as opposed to alienating others we didn't grab the Quran and say this is for us and that's it and every everyone that doesn't believe in it is outside of this formula no it's an inclusive book that included everybody one of the things that hurt me the most is the lack of inclusivity for Muslim it's like we come from a different planet or something that it's not what what we consider the Quran is a continuation of the previous scriptures this is something that most people that have an negative opinion about Islam adhere to and that is something that's very hurtful to Muslim it actually makes the stops the conversation dead in its tracks because if you're not considered as a person of the book as we consider Christian and you to be then that conversation ends right there and then so to just have an open mind would be great yeah and to do our homework right well I'm very grateful for this time I think we should do a follow-up sometime as well Brad yeah go ahead can I just can I just close with this story so this was a little bit time ago maybe 1314 years ago we had an opportunity to take our family to London and it was in the summer so we didn't have to take them out of school or anything and we were there for probably about two and a half three weeks and it's interesting you can be in a in a place that is full of so many people millions of people and you don't feel seen or heard or known right and I woke up one morning feeling very unconnected and unseen and unknown and I just I prayed a really short prayer and that was Jesus I want to see you today so we had a big day lined up with our kids things we were going to see and we were all over London that day walking busing subway and everywhere I was looking for Jesus and I could hardly get anyone to look at like have eye contact away and I was a little discouraged actually I thought wow millions of people and I don't see you Jesus so we were actually the last few hundred feet from the place that we were staying we were staying in in the East End and between the buildings were long sidewalks and we were crossing this common area there was grass on either side of us and Brad was at the front of us we had all we were all just try by this time we were so tired Brad was in the front and then our three boys were in the middle and I was bringing up the rear and as we entered this long straight sidewalk I saw a woman coming towards us and she had in a full burqa only had her eyes shone and I watched her watch my family and as we came together because we were coming from different ends she didn't look at Brad at all he was at the front she didn't look at Brad it on but then our voice were all there all tall they're all taller than Brad they're six foot four five and six six and eight and and she and I could see without trying to look too obvious she was noticing how tall and thin they were and she looked at each one and then there was this moment to where her eyes and my eyes connected and I could only see her eyes but I could see her smile I could see her saying I see you mama I see how proud you are of your boys and I saw Jesus moment and he thought all of these people maybe I would have just looked away and thought no I can't see Jesus there but there's there he was in her and all I could see was her eyes and it it has been one of the most amazing revelations of Jesus that I have ever had in my life and I have lots of stories and lots of ways Jesus has been in my life but that was just this beautiful amazing moment and so as you spoke and as you shared I thought none of this surprises me but it is glorious to hear and only because the context of that little moment with this woman who I will never meet again and if I did I wouldn't even know who she was [Music] time we share them sharing thank you this is the hottest arching story fantastic greenie thank you you're welcome well thank you and thank you for showing us by your lives what the quran means by the all-merciful god it's you truly a good reminder to everybody who's gonna watch this mm-hmm so we'll break now but we will see you again one day and and we're going to get this up online for people as soon as possible today so again thank you and and until next time god getting to you what I say again say that again uhand go can you stay on for a second i want to talk to you about something oh for sure alright alright have a good one bus here

Channel: Brad Jersak

Views: 1,480

Rating: 4.9148936 out of 5

Keywords: Safi Kaskas, Brad Jersak, Quran, Islam, Christianity, Interfaith, Dialogue, Jesus

Id: VS2xfu4L3C8

Length: 67min 28sec (4048 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020