The Muslim Jesus (Peace be upon him) Talk + Q&A

oh he said number Rema ya habiba mohammadi Beshara they are oh hell need maybe a midi sundial a come long fearing he yep Enoch only moa-ad suddenly come ooon loafie I hear ye even Elbert only hon Enoch only what Heidi yowling come on lolly good afternoon and welcome to a special interfaith program organized by game peace our topic of discussion for today is the Muslim Jesus my name is new rule soil and I'm gonna be the master of conduct for this program and I'm also the cameraman so please bear with me and I want to thank each and every one of you we'll take our time on a busy cold Sunday afternoon and came here to discuss and learn about a very important topic that marries three different faiths together I welcome all of you and some of you may be joining us from the meetup groups Aska muslim open discussions and compassionate citizen Fox Valley I know Norlin is here from there thank you so much all of you for coming today let me quickly go over the housekeeping rules and the agenda and the ethical rules for today in terms of the housekeeping rules we have the sign-in sheet in the back everyone is requested to sign in and get a nametag for yourself the restrooms are towards the left side of the conference room so when you walk out of the room here make a left and the women's restroom should be right at the end and when you make it right the men's restroom should be on the left side of the hallway we have some snacks for you all you have some cup coffee and donuts please help yourself to grab something and also we are giving out a give back to our brothers and sisters from other faiths and this gift bag contains important information regarding jihad in Islam women's right in Islam who is Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and the misconceptions about Islam and also the most important thing that this bag contains is the english translation of the holy quran so this is all free so just please feel free to grab it while you're walking out of the room the agenda comprises of three parts i will be introducing the our main speaker for today the main speaker will then give a 40-minute talk on the topic of the Muslim Jesus and that will be followed by the Q&A session for the remainder of the time in terms of the ethical rules it is a very humble request from our side that when our speaker is speaking and you disagree with him on a certain matter or a topic and you have you need more clarification we request you to hold back your thoughts and make a note of them and then in the Q&A session you can ask the speaker about that okay what happens is if somebody interrupts the person who's trying to listen and concentrate might deviate from his concentration also the speaker might lose his track and the flow so it's the humble request normal side to be cautious about the protocol that we have here and also in the speaker uses Arabic in his language please do not be intimidated by he's going to translate that for you okay all right so let us begin now so the word God in Arabic means Allah so in Arabic is it is a strict translation as Allah so whenever I use or the speaker uses the reference as God we mean Allah so the God has spoken to the mankind and to reveal himself as the one true God he has guided us throughout the history he has sent prophets and messengers with legislation throughout the time in the past Judaism Christianity and Islam are rooted together from the same source of light starting from Adam peace be upon him we follow and worship the same God of Abraham and Moses peace be upon them both and that is the reason you will find a lot of similarities between the three religion in terms of stories the morals the laws and the concept and what is God trying to reveal and speak to the mankind about perhaps that is the reason the difference is between us stand out clearly Jesus Christ peace be upon him stands in the middle like a bridge connecting all the three faiths together and today we will show you the Muslim belief upon Jesus Christ peace be upon him and reveal to you some of the amazing facts about Jesus Christ as well as mother Mary peace be upon her in the Holy Quran and compare them with the Bible we may have our differences in terms of religion and beliefs but we can discuss them in a humble way and understand each other we are not here to confront with anybody we are here to make peace and promote peace and solidarity we are here to promote education and knowledge so dear brothers and sisters in humanity it is it is okay to have a difference of opinion but it is very important that your difference of opinion is delivered in a humble way and in a graceful manner basically you are our guest and we want to make sure that when you walk out of this room today you have a lot of compassion and optimism towards all the Muslims in your heart even though we may agree to disagree on a certain matters and the reason I'm saying this is because when I'm doing the I was doing this campaign online I got a lot of hate messages which were disturbing so that is why we wanted we do want to create that kind of a hostile environment here we can discuss everything in a humble way we intend to finish by 3:30 p.m. at the max and right after that I would like to take some video testimonials from our guests and get a feedback about how did you feel about the program and what would you like to see in the future so without any further at you and wasting no time I'm going to introduce our speaker for today and that is dr. Sabeel Ahmed so dr. Samir lemon is the director of gain Peace Project an outreach project of Islamic circle of North America gain peace calms the aim is to bring out the commonalities and build bridges between people of various faiths races and nationalities now to Sabeel had given many outreach presentations and workshops in various cities in the USA on the topic of Sharia freedom of speech comparative religion and youth empowerment and empowerment after completing his medical education from the Caribbean he decided to dedicate his time as a full-time educator of of Islam to tackle Islamophobia and to convey the peace message of Islam he was born and raised in Hyderabad India and moved to the USA more than 20 years ago he is married with three children and resides with his family in Martin Grove Illinois so please welcome dr. Sabeel Amal bismillah have rahmani raheem I start in the name of God the most beneficent and merciful and welcome and greet all of you with the Islamic greeting of assalamu alaykum that means may god's peace be upon each single one of you those of you from the christian background may be aware that this was the greeting that jesus peace be upon him used to give his disciples when he used to meet them from the Gospel of John chapter 20 verse number 19 when Jesus went to the upper chamber the very first thing that he mentioned to the disciples are the words peace be on you right so we Muslims since we follow Jesus 1.7 billion Muslims that is also our greeting when we meet and greet other people we dead being said let me start with this quiz question with all of you you see a Christmas tree up there you see some locality of there where do you think this is from by the way and this is for our guest where do you think this is from there you go you got it wonderful have you been there just a guess ok all right I took this picture two days ago with my camera so I'm I came here last night by the way from that Lam alright so right now it's my nap times my sleep time right all right but my presentation would be about certain clips and certain videos and comparative religion in the context who was Jesus a beloved prophet according to the Muslim faith what do you think this is by the way okay it's a house it's a house apparently of Mary the mother of Jesus now before I'd run into who was Jesus the Muslim Jesus it's important for us to go one step further and look at who was Mary the mother of Jesus peace be upon her and you'll be surprised to find out that in the entire Quran there is only one woman who is mentioned by name it is no other than Mary the mother of Jesus is in there surprising not the mother of Muhammad peace be upon him not his wife not his daughter but a Jewish lady 600 years ago who the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him never met she is the only one mentioned by honor and dignity in the Quran I mean one more important and interesting fact is if we can all have our cell phones perhaps on silent that is going to all it's going to help us out in Shama gardening so she's mentioned 32 times in the quran thirty-two times compared to about eighteen times in the New Testament by the way all right if somebody's taking the notes and keeping the facts and figures that is really interesting fact about Mary mentioned that many times in the Quran so actually this is not her tomb nobody knows where her tomb is by the way this is one of the houses or the house that she was brought up in and this is also by Bethlehem by the way so now the reason I'm mentioning this is because you know Mary the mother of Jesus as she is mentioned in the Quran she's mentioned that from the time that she was growing up she used to be like if really pious girl so she was born in the house of Elaine Braun right Imran and the family of Imran and they gave Mary to be brought up by a really pious person and his name was so as he was bringing her up and she was like a really young girl she was really surprised one day that all of a sudden Mary had this really good fruit basket or a bunch of fruits bunch of food next to her and he knew that it was not her who gave her this basket of fruits so he became really really you know suspicious and curious you know then he asked Mary you know Mary varied this food the basket came from and lo and behold Mary said you know these fruits it is God who has provided me this - and it is indeed God who has who gives this to his creatures so this is mentioned in the Quran chapter number 3 verse number 37 let me just hold the by the way yeah so speaking about Mary it's really important for us that as a child she used to be the most pious lady as she was growing up however it's also very important that's not the actual basket by the way right it's not there the basket yet that she was growing up an angel was sent to Mary by God and it says in the Quran chapter chapter number 3 verse number 42 an angel was sent to Mary and the angel says you know Oh Mary God has chosen you God has purified you and God has chosen you above all the women I mean can you imagine the honor given to Mary about all the women of the world by the way and that includes all the Muslim women right the millions and millions of women who were in the past and present and who are going to come there is no one who can take as big of a honor as Mary the mother of Jesus so that's really important distinction that she has a attained by God the honored that God has given to her so as she was growing up she was still you know young you an angel came send by God and the angel said that God is going to guard his promise it's a prophecy that God is going to give a birth to you of his son a pious son and she was surprised how can I have a son when no man has touched me and I'm not being unchaste then the angel said that it will be done it is the destiny it is the decree of God whatever God decrees it will be done so then it mentions then it continues what do you think this is by the way since we are in the context of Mary and the birth of Jesus right this is apparently in Bethlehem the birthplace or the boat plays the actual place of Prophet Jesus peace be upon him so when I went there on Friday morning just before the Friday prayers I saw many of our Christian friends up there and you may not be able to see this is like a like a star over here and underneath that if you can look down there they have made some nice you know decorative things just to symbolize that this was the birthplace of Prophet Jesus peace be upon him so when he was born I mean she took the baby out to her people and the people started to accuse her you know Mary how can you do such a thing you know you are not a you know I mean how can you do adultery fornication you are the sister of Aaron miss you know you are from the lineage of Aaron and Moses and really good and honored lineage how can you do such a thing like that so at that point maybe she remain silent so this is in chapter 19 verse number 30 by the way okay chapter 19 verse number 30 if she remained silent and she pointed to the baby Jesus and baby Jesus he started to speak and he spoke and he said so this is one of the miracles by the way so this miracle is not there in the Bible in the New Testament but this miracle is there in the Quran so baby Jesus he spoke and he said that I am a servant of God and I am appointed as a prophet God gave me a gospel and I came for the children of Israel and God made me to worship Him and also made me to give the charity and then he continued that God has honored me so peace be so then it says that peace be upon me when I was born when I'm going to die and when I am going to be resurrected again so this is the story of Jesus when he was a baby this is what he mentioned right and this is a really important miracle by the way so he defended Mary the mother of Jesus because you know there is no DNA test at that time there is no test the medical test as we know so he started to speak and he started to defend his mother from the accusations that were given to him and to her so where does Jesus fit in the bigger spectrum of Islam in the chain of prophethood this is where he fits by the way so I saw whether Caiaphas mentioned when we Muslims when we say the word Allah we don't mean a different God we mean the same God who created all of us just so in the Arabic language his name is Allah you know just like in Spanish language by the way what's the name for God in Spanish anyone from the Spanish background no Dios right like in German is God in Norwegian it is good in our mic language the language of Jesus by the way what was his language right our mic language in that language according to the according to encyclopædia Britannica in that language the name for God it is a la ilaha very similar to the word Allah so God or Allah has many many attributes by the way anyone of you have read the Quran and read some of the attributes of God yes many times oh good what's your name my name is yours Yusef okay masha'Allah so who can recall some of the names for God in the Quran since you have read the Quran alright how about you better use of the grave knowing that just 99 right right 99 plus names and these are some of the names for God by the way the foremost is that we said that Allah is only one he's one he's unique then we say that he is eternal eternal means he always existed so anyone who always existed does not need to have any parents I mean that's the definition of a person or entity always eternally existing always and we also say that God does not have any children and his sons and daughters any grandchildren any uncle's or aunts we say that God is forgiving a merciful God he's the one sustaining all of us you know the wonderful snacks are thank you very much for bringing the wonderful snacks now why don't you give a big round of applause for making is possible for all of us so these are some of the attributes which are mentioned in the Quran by the way two very important attributes is that God is a loving God God is a God of love Allah dude as we say in Islam in the Quran in Arabic so anyone that we love as human beings we want to care for the person or the entity who we love so caring is a natural outcome of our love for any entity since God loves humanity and the creation God would like to guide and help the creation so Islam says that to help the creation to guide the creation God did not came down and became a human being he did not came down and became an idol or part of the creation God remained God and he appointed prophets and messengers and these are the names of some of the prophets and messengers by the way literally there would be tens and thousands of them they were sent to all the lands and all the people of the past so it says in the Quran chapter number 16 verse number 36 that God has appointed prophets and messengers to all the nations of the past and their that their message was the message of inviting their people to worship the creator and not the creation so here are some of the similar things between Islam and Christianity and also Judaism by the way so when God created Adam God commanded Adam and Eve you know enjoy all the things that you have in in the paradise but stay away from this specific tree but then we know what happened correct somebody deceived them and they made the very first saying the very first mistake but here is a slight difference by the way between the Old Testament narration and the Quranic narration so according to the quranic narration after they made the mistake after God sent them down to earth this sincerely they repented to God you know oh god we made the mistake please forgive us and it says in the Quran that God forgave their sins so according to Islam we don't believe in the original sin we don't believe that a child which is born is born with a sin we say that every child is born with original goodness with a good heart with a pure line pure and innocent without any blemish it is after they reach the age of puberty if they make mistakes that's when there would be a countable fall and even if we make mistakes according to Islam we can ask for God's forgiveness without any mediator and it says in the Quran that God is willing to forgive all the sins if he sincerely repent to God so that's a slight subtle difference by the way the second subtle difference is you know according to Islam and according to the Quran somebody committed the very first same so according to Christianity in Judaism who committed the very first sin by the way between Adam and Eve II right the woman correct that sound is referring the Bible here is again a slight difference according to the Quran it was equally Adam and Eve they made the very first mistake so I say that equality in Islam starts from day one right it does very important so after this started to have children and grandchildren guys can come and take a seat so God appointed prophets and messengers to guide humanity and the basic message that God gave to all the prophets and messengers is the message of absolute submission to only one God only worship one God do not worship idols and humans and creation but only submit to one God so if I am going to ask this question to all of you what is one word in Arabic that describes the concept of absolute submission to one God there is one word in Arabic by the way what is that one word Islam there you go it's right there connected right there very good very good so we say that all the prophets and messengers of God that came with that same message the basic core message is that invite your people invite your countrymen invite the people of your land to come and worship only one God tell them to refrain from worshipping idols and humans and any creation so that was a message we say that prophet Noah and Abraham and Moses and Jesus and Muhammad peace be upon him they all came to bring to their people so what is my evidence from the Quran by the way right this is the evidence from the Quran in chapter number 42 verse number 13 of the Quran it says and I'll give you the translation so God is saying that the same message the core message given to you Muhammad peace be upon him is the same core message that was given to Noah Abraham Moses and Jesus that they should not divide themselves they should only worship one God what else is my evidence by the way it says in the Quran chapter number 3 verse number 67 speaking about Abraham peace be upon him his Arabic name is Ibrahim by the way and there is a mosque in Jerusalem must did Ibrahim write I have been there by the way and his grave is there so he says in the Quran chapter 3 verse number 66 speaking about Abraham that Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian he was a Hanif he was a Muslim means he used to submit to only one God used to only worship one God when it comes to prophet Moses peace be upon him again it says in chapter 42 verse 13 about him being a monotheistic person and also you'll be surprised to find out there of all the prophets and the messengers and there are about 25 of them mentioned in the Quran by the way my name prophet Moses peace be upon him is the most often mentioned prophet by name in the entire Quran would you be guessing that person to be Muhammad right peace be upon him not even close by the way Muhammad peace be upon him is one of the least mentioned in the Quran by name four times well fifth time by the name Ahmed I will come to that later inshallah God willing but only five times Mohammed is mentioned peace be upon him in the Quran Moses peace be upon him he's mentioned 136 times and who do you think is the second most mentioned prophet in the Quran go ahead I was I was thinking you would say that right now he's mentioned 25 times by the way but there is some more one more prophet and he's also a prophet of the Old Testament mentioned 69 times and who is there by the way there you go Prophet Abraham peace be upon it 69 times then Ishmael and Isaac and David and Solomon and different prophets are mentioned many more times then Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him so more so Moses peace be upon him obviously he's mentioned her in 36 times then Jesus peace be upon him he's mentioned 25 times the same number of times as coffee Adam peace be upon him so I will come more about Jesus right but the reason you may be seeing you know you may be asking Sabeel what is this chapter 3 verse number 51 this is the place in the quran jesus is quoted by god and jesus is saying in the law horribie were a book on fabu do has a Sarah the most supreme mister actual world's write in Arabic the the translation is chapter 3 verse number 51 Jesus is saying that verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord worship Him alone and that is the straight path so we say that Jesus his message was the message of the same the same message as was given to all the prophets and messengers that is absolute worship of one God then we say that the only prophet that came after Muhammad peace be upon him about six hundred years after Jesus was gone was no other than Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him so it says in the Quran chapter number 33 verse number 40 that Muhammad peace be upon him is the last and the final prophet that means he is the seal of the Prophet hartamanda being the seal the last the final prophet by the way and his message was again the message of all the prophets and the messengers so it says in the Quran chapter number chapter number 1 1 2 well let me just give you the translation by the way so I have three children even my four-year-old he memorized that surah right or jack that chapter well he memorize about 15 stories by the way he goes to preschool so it says in there in chapter 112 mentioning about the oneness of God given to Muhammad peace be upon him which is there in the Quran it says that say Allah is one and only means God is one and only he is eternal he's needed by all he begets not nor his be garden and there is none like unto him so God is saying that say that God is only one that means is not 1 in 3 he's not Trinity he's just 1 in 1 and that he's eternal and he's the one who's needed by all and that he is not that he begets not nor his bee garden means he does not produce any children now he came from any parents and there is no one like God in all the creation no Associates to God no one takes the attributes of God which are in their own perfection so we human beings we can be a loving to our families our children our friends but god is the most-loving with the perfect with the with the perfection of that attribute we can be kind and merciful but God has those attributes in their perfection so no human being has those attributes in that perfection only God possesses those and the second important aspect is that God does not carry the attributes of human beings so both sides by the way God does not have their attributes of human beings and no creation has attributes of God so that is what if you ask any any Muslim by the way how can you recite something about the oneness of God from the Quran that chapter is the one that comes to their mind which I recited the verses from by the way all right but so for the sake of completeness you may be asking you know whether Sabeel what is the concept of salvation in Islam the concept of salvation in Islam according to the Quran chapter number 2 verse number 25 so God is saying in here that if anyone who has the right belief and doing good deeds God promises that person and those people eternal paradise and I will come more to that about crucifixion Islamic belief more to that insha'Allah God willing and you may be wondering you know Sabeel what what about all of these different words that you have up here so according to the Islamic belief according to the Islamic history we say that even though the message of oneness of was given by God to all the prophets and messengers some people they started to deviate from this message and they started to worship idols that's how the religion of Hinduism came about perhaps some people just started to worship the Sun the Sun the Moon right the Sun that's how a teen is I'm not a seasoned by the way Athene ism came about some people started to worship ancestors and the spirits some people gave up the worship of God in their wheat and certain rituals and we say that perhaps Buddhism may have came about like that and then some people just started to worship humans that's how many other religions came about but God by His mercy by his loving and guiding nature he always appointed prophet after prophet messenger after messenger to bring these people back again to Islam to absolute submission to one God so what about Sabeel do you guys believe in Hellfire yes we do yes we do you know just like when we went to schools and colleges you know if he always came on time and did all the things that have a professor teacher tells us obviously we are going to get a good grade but suppose if you don't obey the obey the attendance policy or take the quizzes assignments and the homework and the final exam obviously there would be consequences so we Muslims say the Quran says that if anyone keeps on associating partners with God means they know that there is God and then they say that you know this human or this animal or this creation is also God along with God or instead of God then we say that if the person dies like that without repenting then there would be Hellfire but here is a big caveat by the way it's not up to me or to any Muslim to judge you or anyone else only God would be the one judging us based upon the criteria that God has given to us so I cannot condemn anyone or I cannot promise anyone this are the criteria of God and God is going to judges all right because some people may say you know Sabine are you condemning all the people non-muslims to you know Hellfire if not me right it's God's criteria and God's criteria would be just and fair by the way right that may have brought many questions but you can hold the questions by the way we have lot of time for it right close to like one and a half hours hopefully all right so let's move on really quickly so as I mentioned before we believe in literally thousands of prophets and messengers about 25 of them they are mentioned in the Quran by name by the way and as you may be seeing look at all the commonalities that Islam and Christianity and Judaism has you know Prophet Abraham is Ibrahim in the Quran and that's the name of one of my sons by the way our prophet Joseph is use of in the Quran and that's the name of my younger son I'm not going to go one by one these are not on the children but I only have two sons right that's it only two sons one daughter in two cents so we believe that Adam was the very first prophet message was given to him and we believe that Muhammad peace be upon him was the last and the final messenger and the rest of them they came for many centuries and God knows you know how long of a time between each one of the prophets and the messengers some of them were contemporary to each to each other by the way but some of them they were like literally centuries apart from each other so where does Prophet Jesus stand you know prophet Jesus peace be upon him we say that he was a human being he was a flesh-and-blood just like any prophet you know even Muhammad peace be upon him we don't worship Him he's not our mediator you know he's not you know when we go to the grave of Muhammad peace be upon him when we go to the mosque of mohammed peace be upon him we pray in the mosque but we pray directly to god not going through muhammad peace be upon him or not going through any other saint or any Muslim either dead or alive right we just prayed directly to God and we know that as I mentioned before one of the names of God is that God is all-knowing he is all-hearing so for that reason we say that we don't need to go through any mediator because God can hear us and God I mean God knows what we are thinking right now even if you don't speak anything so Quran mentions many many miracles of Jesus by the way chapter number 3 verse number 49 to verse number 52 it speaks about the miracle of Prophet Jesus as you could see the birds up there that he used to make birds of clay he used to breathe into into them and they stood fly off the Quran speaks about the miracle of Jesus that he used to give our eyesight to the blind healed the lepers and heal the sick then it says in the Quran that he also used to revive the dead he used to bring back the dead people but really important anytime the Quran mentions about these miracles of Jesus peace be upon him it says that by the permission of God but the will of God by the power of God the reason God keeps on mentioning that it is God who is doing the miracles because by chance people do not start worshipping Jesus or don't give the divine attributes to Jesus because God wants us to know that you know just like Jesus was given miracles Muhammad peace be upon him he was given miracles and Adam and Abraham and Moses and Noah they were all given miracles by the way and these miracles are not coming from their own persons this miracles are coming from God so God keeps on saying when the miracles are mentioned about Jesus that God is the one who is the source of the miracles so what is the message of Jesus so in the Quran many times so there are 25 times Jesus is mentioned in the Quran close to four times the same repetition is mentioned by the way in the law Horeb beaver abu qamha voodoo has a Sarah the most supreme so Jesus is quoted in the Quran multiple times that his message was the message of absolute monotheism that verily Allah or God is my Lord and your Lord worship Him alone and that is the right path that is the straight path so that is the primary message of Jesus peace be upon him okay just by looking at that better image by the way there which part of Bethlehem do you think that is what part of Jerusalem what do you think that was no this is not the birthplace this one what would that be in English this is the Garden of Gethsemane right you guys remember it is mentioned in the New Testament by the way right it is mentioned in the New Testament chapter number 26 verse number 39 that you know when the people were coming after Jesus may that be the Jewish of the Roman people he went away to the Garden of Gethsemane over there he prayed to God that Oh God take this cup of death away from me not my view but she oval so as he was praying to God he was not just praying like this or not even bowing by the way he was praying cross trading that's what the Bible says he placed his forehead on the ground and he's prostrating and he's praying to God taking saying that you know God take this cup of death away from me so here is a short video by the way so there is a church next to it there was a mass going on when I went there so this is from Friday morning again like two days ago there's an audio to it but let me just keep the audio by the way so the garden that you see up here the these trees the these are the olive trees and these are from the time of Prophet Jesus peace be upon him and they may be like even before his time - by the way there are about four or five of them so this is the way Jesus Christ prayed to God to be saved from the people who are coming after him right so they have still preserved that that garden up there okay what you see over here is what you see over here is the place where Jesus ascended to the heavens right there's the actual place and there is a short video so these are again from two days ago by the way correct so as you go inside there there is a space up there and there is like a big dome that they have made that sculpture I'm not sure if this is from the time of Jesus or later on they preserved it and they built upon it there you go you know they always can watch the YouTube videos or hear in the lectures but unless and until we go to this historical places you know just like a life-changing experience by the way there are so many prophets who came to that these places right Jerusalem and Bethlehem and Milley Middle East many of the prophets ever they died in there they are buried up there so these are really historical places so I'm going to really may you know advise all of you if you have not been to these places to be there take your family take your children so they can really appreciate by the way of the wonderful prophets including coffee Jesus who also came up there so regarding the Ascension of Jesus you'll be surprised to find out that Quran also mentions that by the way quran also mentioned the ascension of jesus so it says in the quran chapter number 4 verse number 157 to be exact so god is saying and this is the translation so god is saying that they say or they boast they means the romans jewish or other people that they boast that we have killed jesus the messiah the son of mary they have killed him not neither they crucified him it only made to appear to them they killed him not God lifted Jesus up to himself anyone who differs in that they're following nothing but the conjecture so this is what the Islamic Jesus about his ascension so according to Islam again we don't believe in the crucifixion of Jesus we don't believe that salvation is by the crucifixion or the shedding of the blood of Jesus we say that Jesus was taken alive in body and in soul by the way so his grave is not in Kashmir all right some people say that Jesus he escaped the crucifixion and he went to India all the places and he died there right and they still have his grave up there in India by the way right in Kashmir region according to some people but according to the Quran God lifted Jesus up to himself so so salvation in Islam is not by the shedding of the blood of Jesus salvation in Islam is by personal accountability by having the right belief and doing good deeds as we have mentioned before in Chapter number two verse number 25 write anyone who has the right belief in doing good deeds God says in the Quran he promises paradise to those individuals and obviously God's mercy comes into play right so that's about the Ascension of Prophet Jesus peace be upon him then you'll be surprised to find out again that Muslims are also waiting for the second coming of Jesus surprised no you know just like our Jewish friends are waiting for the Messiah well we say that they missed the boat and we say that our Christian friends are also waiting for the second coming of Jesus 1.7 billion Muslims are waiting again for the second coming of Prophet Jesus peace be upon him in the Quran it does not specify the details but according to Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him according to about thirteen authentic narrations in imam bukhari imam muslim and these are the collectors of the narrations by the way thirteen different times Muhammad peace be upon him he mentioned about Jesus and his second coming he would be coming in the city of Damascus he would be descending putting his hand on the shoulders of two angels and he would be coming in one of the mosque in in Damascus it's called the white mosque by the way and this would be he would be coming at the further time that means we Muslims we pray five times the very first prayer that we do is before sunrise so he would be descending around that time so that's not the actual mosque by the way right I just Google and I got the Mosque in Damascus correct the actual mask maybe some mosque and in in Damascus so when he is going to come the Muslims are about to start their morning the the the Fajr prayer and after looking at Jesus obviously the Muslims are going to say you know why don't you lead the prayer so Jesus is going to say no you lead the prayer and so he's going to pray the Muslim prayer one of the five prayers the way that Muslims pray because we said he was here in the second coming he was a Muslim Muslim is a person who submits and worships one God so we say that Jesus was a Muslim we say that Moses was a Muslim and Abraham and Noah and all the prophets that you saw in the previous slides we say that every single one of them was a Muslim so in the second coming of Jesus he would obviously be a Muslim again but now the only difference in the second coming is he would not be coming as a new prophet by the way he would be coming as a person following the commandments and the guidance and the Sharia law that was given to Muhammad peace be upon him means praying five times a day giving charity going for the pilgrimage right all the different guidances that were given through Muhammad peace be upon him he is going to now obey all of them in his second coming that means he is going to go and perform the Hajj what's the Hajj there we go the pilgrim is right it's one of the five pillars of Islam so going for the pilgrimage to Mecca so Jesus is going to go to the pilgrimage he's going to get married and he's going to have a fight with the Antichrist I'm not sure if it's going to be the 666 or what number right but he's going to have a fight with the Antichrist and then he's going to defeat the Antichrist and his army and Jesus is going to rule the world for forty years and around the age of about 63 he also is going to die a natural death and he would be buried next to the grave of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him so which city is the grave of Muhammad peace be upon him by the way the guest there is one more city close to Mecca who is the which is the second most blessed city by the way there you go in the city of Medina right so for 1,400 plus years Muslims they have already a empty space a space next to the grave of Muhammad peace be upon him because they knew that the prophecy is going to be fulfilled when Jesus used to come he is going to rule there he's going to die and he would be buried and they are going to do the burial ceremony for him the burial prayer and he is going to be buried next to the grave of Muhammad peace be upon him but that's not the end by the way right that's not the end before he departed the world Jesus peace be upon him he prophesized about the coming of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him so it says in the Quran chapter number 61 verse number 6 so this is this is Jesus saying in the Quran or God is quoting Jesus in the Quran and the translation is this is chapter 61 verse number 6 by the way those who are taking the notes so Jesus is saying that I came I am appointed as a messenger by by the messenger by God I came to affirm the Torah that was sent before me to Moses and to give a glad tidings of him of a profit to come after me whose name would be Ahmed and Emmet is one of the names of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him so we say that yes Jesus prophesized about the coming of prophet Jesus Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him but that's not the end by the way right as I mentioned that every single person who is ever born the person is going to die and they would be brought back to life and there would be standing in front of God and then there would be there would be a day of judgment on the day of judgment Jesus is also going to be brought in front of God and God is going to ask Jesus and this is mentioned in the Quran chapter number five verse number one one six and God is going to ask Jesus you know oh Jesus did you say to your people to worship you and your mother as garze Jesus is going to say I never said that if I did you would know it because God is all-knowing I never said that what I told them means my people is to worship my god and your God so even on the day of judgment Jesus is going to say that I never proclaim to worship me or to worship Mary or to anyone else the only entity I i proclaim them to worship is God alone the one creator so that my dear friends my dear brothers and sisters in humanity that is for the Muslim Jesus's we say that he was a human being he was born miraculous as a miracle to two Virgin Mary he's appointed as a prophet you know in chapter five verse number seventy-five says of the Quran that Jesus was a messenger and many messengers passed away before him his mother was an upright lady and they both used to eat food so God is saying that you know how can somebody be God when that person is dependent on food when that person needs sustenance so we said that Jesus's message was the message of absolute oneness of God that he performed miracles by the permission of God and we say that no he's not God or he's not son of God it says in the Quran chapter 10 verse number 68 that Jesus is not the Son of God and when it comes to Trinity or God being Jesus and vice versa it says in chapter 5 verse number 72 and 73 that Jesus is not God they do not say 3 do not say Trinity so God is warning that do not say Trinity do not say 3 because God is only one God and then last but not the least if you bring them summarize them all together we say that Jesus was a creation of God a mighty and noble Messenger of God but then some of you may be saying you know how does it compare to the biblical Jesus by the way right because this is supposed to be a comparative religion presentation so I have studied the Bible just like you have studied the Quran many times I have studied the Bible many times by the way in fact I am a Bible collector I have 300 Bibles in my collection and my wife is not happy about that she's not right but she became happy last what the Black Friday is it when I finally bought my Kindle right now all the softcover books no hardcover book right so after reading the Bible and the Quran and other scriptures this is what I summarized about Jesus in the Quran and in the Bible just like in the Quran the Bible also say that Jesus was born that he was a human being he was flesh and blood that he was a prophet of God I mean some of you may be surprised to find out you know those from the Christian faith that even in the Bible by the way no less than four times four times Jesus is mentioning about himself as a prophet of God for example in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 13 verse number 57 in the Gospel of Mark chapter 6 verse number 4 in the Gospel of Luke chapter 13 verse number 33 in the Gospel of John chapter 6 verse number 4 all of these places Jesus is saying that I am a prophet of God and that's what we Muslim say in a one time was it last year maybe two years ago we had a bill boat by Highway 294 and the billboard said in a one message many prophets and then underneath it says Adam Noah Abraham Moses Jesus Mohammed peace be upon them and then we had about telephone number 1 800 662 Islam so I received a call from a lady who was driving on highway 294 and she was really angry that how can you have you know along with other humans are there prophets the name of Jesus and she was angry so I had to explain to her yes we do acknowledge and we do respect that you take Jesus to be as more than a human being more than a prophet but do you at least agree with me ma'am that he was also mentioned as a prophet of God in your Bible she did not knew that I had to educate her after she got educated she said you know now I'm I'm fine with that you can keep that right and can you send me a free copy of the Quran and we did so yes we say that Jesus was a prophet so let me wrap up we said that Jesus performed miracles by the power of God you know in the Quran it says that chapter 3 verse number 49 to 52 it says in the Bible in the Gospel of Luke the third gospel chapter number 19 or chapter number 11 verse number 20 by the finger of God that I cast out the demon sight Jesus is saying this Gospel of John chapter five verse number 30 jesus said that I of myself I cannot do anything whatever I hear I judge that judgment is true because I seek not my old will but the will of God who sent me so in the Bible also Jesus is doing miracles by the power of God in the Quran Jesus his people to only worship one God read chapter 3 verse number 51 of the Quran how about in the Bible by the way you know some of you may remember in the Gospel of Mark the second Gospel chapter number 12 verse number 28 the Jewish person came to Jesus and the Jews in this person asked him that you know of all the commandments which one is the first the greatest of all the commandments and as you may recall in the Old Testament there are 613 commandments so this person wanted to know that of all of them which one is the first the greatest of all of them and Jesus peace be upon him in the Gospel of Mark chapter 12 verse number 29 he replied to this person and he said here o Israel the Lord our God is only one worship him with all your heart mind soul and strength and that is the first commandment so we say that that was the primary message both in the Quran and in the New Testament and this is a surprised one by the way right so according to the Quran a person gets eternal life if they submit to one God and obeys his Commandments chapter two of the Quran verse number 25 says that what about prophet Jesus by the way Jesus was as exactly a really important question a direct question in the Gospel of Matthew the very first gospel chapter number 19 verse number 16 a person came to Jesus and asked him this million-dollar question that o good master what should I do that I should gain eternal life means I should gain paradise so Jesus first of all corrected that person and he said that why do you call me good there is no one good except one who is God and then jesus said if you want to get eternal life if you want to go to paradise obey the commandments this person has the question what kind of commandments and Jesus spoke about the 10 commandments and the very first commandment of the ten commandments is of the absolute worship of one God God in the book of Exodus chapter 20 verse number 20 chapter number in the book of Exodus chapter 3 verse number 21 in the books are for Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse number 16 it mentions about the Ten Commandments so these Ten Commandments speaks about the absolute worship of God and doing good deeds be a good neighbor do not lie do not cheat where your parents do not kill alright these are the commandments so God is saying that worship God and obey the commandments so again we can see the similarities between Jesus in the Quran and Jesus of the gospel so where do we go from here by the way where do we go from here now it's very important when I studied the Quran and when I studied the Bible the core message of all the prophets is the absolute worship of God but they are obviously some differences we have differences about the concept of God is it the Trinity or absolute oneness we may have some differences about what Jesus crucified or was he just raised in his body alive without being crucified we may have the differences was Jesus also divided or was he just a creation of God I would say that yes those differences are good those differences are there but this presentation is for us to ponder about the Islamic side of Jesus and we say that yes God gave an independent revelation to prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and that same God who sent Jesus I also sent Muhammad peace be upon him with these proclamations about who Jesus was and what was his message so I say that yes there are differences but there are more things in common mode of things of commonalities so let's work on the common platform that God has given to us and the biggest commonality we have my friends is that we are all humans so working on the commonalities we as human beings we as brothers and sisters in humanity by God's guidance we can create societies which are based upon morality we can create societies where we can work together where we can work together to eradicate you know poverty and racism lack of insurance to many people you know bias hate discrimination we have the stools by the way God has given that to us so despite the minor differences if you work on the commonalities inshallah God willing as we say we can make society is based upon morality equality justice and peace for all and when we do that inshallah when we do that not only we can make America great we can make the whole humanity great may God guide and bless us all thank you very much thank you so much dr. Sabeel so we will now begin our Q and a session I know narleen is really patient it's like he wants to ask a question right away so there are some rules and regulations for the Q&A just to let you know so whoever is asking the question should state their name and profession first start following but followed by the question and then they should allow the speaker to answer if you still have any clarification or comments we can always come back to you but keep in mind we have other people in the room and we want everybody to participate and ask the question and we don't want to stick to one person only asking all the questions at the time at one time so please be considered of that and also wanna mention that that although we want to ask questions related to the topic but if you have any concerns about aslam any misunderstanding or islam please feel free to ask dr. Sabeel is as good as can answer all of those questions as well he's gonna try yeah all right so I'm gonna give out this microphone to my brother Arshad and he's gonna come to you please speak in the microphone please and also please ask your important question first okay thank you I apologize in advance for a preface to my question because I want to affirm the very last chart as someone in the minority Christian wing of the Unitarian Universalist Church obvious obviously on the universalism side which is it all had the opportunity for redemption and the idea of eternal hell is is question we're not going to get into the fact that there's a difference there but unitarianism before 325 AD before constantine declared trinitarianism the official gospel or the official orthodoxy of christianity the largest group of christians this is before Mohammed the largest group of Christians was a group that became the Arian heresy and that group was one that saw Jesus as a prophet as a messenger as a stick if you will and I just want to affirm that that that notion of because it's all about interpretation of the Bible Unitarianism was a very conservative theological position well Ralph Waldo Emerson that most people have heard of was a Unitarian minister he actually left the church because it was too conservative so this isn't about some liberal conspiracy here but Unitarianism there is a tremendous amount of scriptural authenticity for your statements I just want to affirm that and then I want to point out the fact that when you brought up the witch I appreciate you bringing up what's the fundamental commandment and when I add to that that Jesus also said that in following we love the Lord thy God which ultimately translates to how we treat one another and the compassion that we express towards one another is the fulfillment of the law so I would actually push back a tad and say that the Ten Commandments was done before Jesus came along and Jesus said that if you simply love your neighbor if you simply act with compassion towards others and ultimately your neighbor is anyone else on the planet that the fulfillment of the law is embedded in that and I think because you mentioned the unity and what combines and what what we can share I think that in that in that single expression of love your neighbor is the point of unity between all of the world religions not just Christianity and Islam so having said that my question was simply to have you maybe respond to not necessarily your own belief although I'd love to hear that as to this notion of finding in the concept of compassion and by the way I'm supposed to identify I'm Norlin dim it and I'm the founder of compassionate citizens foundation and our goal is to ground from the all of the world religions and the non religions the American Humanist Association all have compassion ultimately embedded in their theology and that if we could focus on that instead of even in a sense bringing up the differences because we simply are never going to resolve differences that have no empirical basis and so if we focused on that and everything you said about creating the world how do you feel about having your own religion but also you know Christian religions and others start the center on a theology of compassion welcome and you know we do admire the fact that you started this very good organizing organization that wants to bring humanity together on the basis and the platform of love and compassion you know that reminds me of a passage from the Quran chapter number 49 verse number 19 verse number thirteen by the way 49:13 so God is addressing to all of humanity and God II say that you know Oh mankind Oh humanity I have created you from one single man and one single female and made you into nations and tribes and peoples that you get to know each other not that you may despise each other you get to know each other and then God says that the best amongst you is the one who is a god-fearing a well mannered person and Muhammad peace be upon him he said you know speaking about the neighbors prophet said that you're not a full believer if you eat your food and your neighbors are hungry so it's part of Islam it's part of humanity for us to look out for our neighbors especially the ones who are being you know discarded by the society so it's really important for us yes as I mentioned there are always differences but there are more things in common the biggest thing in common is that God has created as us as humans so we should recognize that we should obviously try to see the truth but at the end of the day we should respect each other despite the differences so it's very good what we have started and we hope and pray that you know more people can look into who God is and commandments of God and live with each other with love and harmony and compassion in peace very good very good hello those of you also my name is Alex I'm a student I have a question I've been reading the Quran in regards to the Virgin Earth Mary in chapter 66 verse 12 Gabriel came to Mary and blow into her private part to conceive Jesus in chapter 19 mary says when Gabriel came to Mary he became like a human being and Jesus was there now do Muslims believe in the virgin birth of Jesus yes Jesus that she was not married she did not had any contact with any man no intimate or sexual relationships but it was a miracle of God that God planted the fetus baby Jesus inside the womb of Mary and Jesus was conceived without any male intervention without any father but you know then God's also mentions comparing the birth of Jesus to the birth of Adam so God says in the Quran chapter 3 verse number 59 that the likeness of Jesus is similar to the likeness of Adam Adam was made from this and God says kun for your kun be and Adam was created so we say that is the miracle of God that God commanded Jesus as a creation in the womb of Mary and she conceived Jesus her being a Virginia's chapter 19 Gabriel became like a man like a human being and he in chapter 66 blew into into Mary so if somebody flew into a virgin lady she is not no longer a virgin right a human being and blow into Mary then she's no longer a virgin because he have touched her he became like a human being and and he touch her according to chapter 19 verse 17 blew into her in chapter 66 verse well my blowing I'm not bitching about the risk goes by and me she Mary who guarded her part and and then we blew into it from our spirit so it's not pointing to the air it's blowing into her privates part of God that God sent the angel and angel did the miracle by the permission of God but it was not a sexual intercourse it was not she was not no longer a virgin after that miracle she was still a virgin it was a very symbolic way that God gave that miracle for you know to Mary and then Jesus was conceived and Jesus was born by the way so that's the standard theology of the commentary of this verse there is no person that I know who says that angel Gabriel came became a human being and had a physical touch and Mary was conceived through that I don't think any Muslim theologian has ever mentioned that interpretation 19 for 17 to 30 if you have a chronic everyday 66 assists like that in Arabic yes the virgin birth is not there in Islam that's what I want to say yeah thank you chapter 3 verse number 42 and verse number 337 and onwards okay the angel Gabriel came and gave the glad tidings and at that point she said you know how can I have a child when no man has touched me and I am NOT being unchaste so then angel you say that it is decreed by God and it is going to happen chakra season six like God verse 12 it says like this chapter 66 crystal yes regardless we say that she returned her virginity and Jesus was conceived by the miracle of God if you want to know the reconciling between these two passages the bottom line is she was still a virgin when she gave the birth okay so it could be any question on the topic and also off the topic by the write any misconception any question based upon you hearing seeing television Fox News anything couple things yet Jesus was not did not die upon the cross and also that let's see well let's take that for example well in also the second coming the New Testament Bible the teachings of the Apostles specifically say that Jesus died upon the cross as well as that he would his second coming he would descend from the heavens with the Angels so my question is do you believe in the authority or the interpretation of the specifically the New Testament apostles who wrote the New Testament because that that's me it seems the writings of the Apostles seem in direct contradiction to what you're saying that Jesus did not die so I'm just wondering how you view the New Testament you mentioned the Old Testament quite a bit but the there seem to be variations with the teaching of the teachings of the Apostles on the new Authority or do we just take it as a torkoal book well there so it's very important we Muslim serves one of the six articles of faith we have six articles of faith by the way first one is to believe in oneness of God second one is to believe in the angels the third one the prophets the books and the day of resurrection day of judgment and in divine decree of God so we as Muslims have to believe in all the books that were revealed to the previous prophets so Prophet Abraham was given certain Scholz prophet Moses was given the towads prophet David was given the zaboor this is a book in Arabic language by the way right then prophet Jesus was given the injeel that's the name of the book in arabic language and muhammad peace be upon him it was given the last revelation which is the quran so we believe in those books the previous books in the original form in which they were revealed not in the current state that they are in so we say that the current books are not in the original forms even if they were in the original forms after the coming of the quran we say that all the previous books they became obsolete because the same source that revealed those previous books has also revealed the quran correcting those books and giving as a more comprehensive guidance not just to the arabs but to all of humanity so for that reason when we have to go for guidance we go to the quran and to the example of mohammed peace be upon we don't go to the New Testament the Old Testament right so with that being said we believe as Muslims that there may be some remnants of the original teachings of Moses and Jesus and David and Abraham and maybe other prophets in the older scriptures of the old and the New Testament but then how do we know where is the remanence where is the truth where is not we say that anything from the Old and New Testament that agrees with the Quran it maybe it's a reminisce from the books it may be right you know for example the Quran speaks about the absolute oneness of God in many many places in a chapter 1 verse number 4 chapter number 2 verse number 255 chapter number 112 and many places and oneness of God is there in the Old Testament also book of Exodus chapter 20 verse number 3 Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse number 16 Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse number 4 Book of Isaiah many places and Jesus also came to proclaim the oneness of God so we say that this may be the remnants of the original books it may be right but then again we say that there are other passages other chapters other contents of the new and Old Testament that they were added by people who are unknown people who are not prophets people maybe historians and over time it has not written the purity of the scriptures so for that reason we say if a person has to go to a revelation that is not only been given by God but also been protected by God we said that revelation is the Quran so for that reason we go with the Quran even though you respect the old and the New Testament you know with that being said some of you would be surprised to find out you know when God revealed the final revelation the Quran card says in their chapter 15 verse number 9 that it is very regard who has revealed the scripture or this message it is God who is going to preserve it and he'll be surprised to find out that the whole Quran has been memorized by no less than 10 million Muslims from around the world as I mentioned before my four-year-old he memorized like 15 sewers of the Quran by the way my friends two sons they memorize the whole Quran and Allah so then close to ten million Muslims who are alive right now from all the way five years of age to 90 plus years of a who memorized the whole Quran so in that way God is protecting this book so it could be a guidance for all of humanity from the time it was revealed in the seventh century up until the last day surely all right so that's what we believe about the Bible or New Testament in the context of Islam and the Quran I just don't recall up and I'll be very brief all right so I want to make sure I understand you properly so you mentioned that there was a book called the injeel given to jesus and so you hold to that and i'm not sure what that is but and then it also if i'm interpreting it correctly you don't necessarily accept the what well let me put it this way the New Testament apostles claim to have had revelations to divine revelations directly from God subs are after after Jesus came you know for example they had the apocalypses so you're not accepting those specific as new divine revelation you're saying that those the New Testament texts written by the Apostles you'llyou'll aligned with them only to what degree they they aligned with the Quran and the Old Testament but you're not necessarily accepting the the New Testament books written by the Apostles as new revelations prophet who came after Jesus was Muhammad peace be upon him there was no the Prophet there was no other independent revelation from God to any one of the disciples or the apostles of Jesus right yeah even though we respect what you believe what you have but this is what we say and what we believe are the way right yes Regt I just want to thank you for hosting this event it's nice to be in a room full of people that that believe in God okay we live in a world today where why do people want nothing to do with God whether it be a Christian or a Jew or Muslim there were those of the core Abrahamic faiths so it's nice to be in a room where everybody's interested in this subject I want to build upon the previous question concerning the crucifixion and we've discussed the New Testament you've you've made your feelings known about where my Islam falls regarding the New Testament what about the Old Testament and I'm going to point you towards the Dead Sea Scrolls I'm going to point you towards the Book of Psalms the Book of Isaiah both of these were written several hundred years before the birth of Christ Psalms written by King David was over a thousand years before Christ was born and in these texts they speak specifically to the crucifixion of Christ okay and I'm gonna finally read a couple verses here to make my point for Doc I'm reading Psalms 22 verse 16 to 18 for dogs have surrounded me the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me they have pierced my hands and my feet I can count all my bones they look and stare at me they divide my garments among them for my clothing they cast lots well that's common knowledge for most Christians that's what happened to Jesus when he was crucified Isaiah 53 I will point you to a verse verse 3 a man of sorrows and acquaintances with Creon and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we do not esteem him surely he has borne griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement for our peace and was upon him and by His stripes we were we were healed these all speak of the crucifixion a hundreds of years a thousand years before Jesus was even born and I want to point finally to the redemption of sin Hebrews 9:22 clearly states that the remission of sin can only be had through the shedding of blood that finds itself originally in the first book of the Bible in Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned what was the first thing God did he slew two animals and covered Adam and Eve and you go through the whole Old Testament and it's nothing about one sacrifice after another after another after another to cover the sins bringing us to the Lamb of God Jesus who was without sin and he died for our sins giving us access to heaven so I throw these these statements out to you and again taking this back to the crucifixion of Christ how do you recant these prophecies in the Old Testament you know these are really good questions by the way so there are literally hundreds of prophecies by our Christian friends that they point out about Jesus in the Old Testament in a world as you mentioned it's how people do the interpretation right when I converse with my Buddhist not Buddhist by the way the Baha'i faith friends they say that the literally tens of prophecies about Baha'u'llah in the Old Testament when I converse with my Muslim friends they point out literally tens and hundreds of prophecies about Muhammad peace be upon him in the Old Testament when I converse with my Christian friends like yourself you point out as you have read the passages many many prophecies it's very important for us to know that not a single time the name Jesus is mentioned anytime anywhere in the Old Testament neither their word Muhammad by the way right peace be upon him or the word Baha'u'llah is the interpretation that we have so see the same prophecies or the same passages that you have read and I have done the research in the Isaiah and in the Daniel and Genesis different chap different books and different passages according to the Jewish interpretations the entity of Israel many times so it has to do with the interpretation by the way number one number two is also important that do you acknowledge so let me ask you this question directly right it's not for the sake of debate by the way do you acknowledge that all of the New Testament specially is it the Word of God in writing and the message or just in the message not in the writing the word is inspired of God the Old Testament and the New Testament God you know the interesting thing why did Jesus come to earth he came to testify to the truth he says in Hebrews that the whole volume of the book speaks of me that's what the Bible says the word is inspired and that the Old Testament the thing that that I really want to point to you is those Dead Sea Scrolls those were buried and in the ground long before Jesus was ever born so this this word the Old Testament hasn't changed and we have clear verses throughout the whole test that I could I could spend hours with you taking you verse by verse by verse everything points to Jesus there's a there's a phrase out there that says the Old Testament conceals what the New Testament reveals the New Testament is the completion it is the finished work of what Christ did on the cross the only way we can be redeemed by God you had mentioned earlier in the conversation that God is all loving well in Isaiah it clearly states that the angels in God's throne room they don't say it love love love they say holy holy holy God is holy God is perfect and God has to deal with sin no the interesting thing about the Bible there's only three or four chapters in here on creation there are 66 books in here written by over 40 authors in three different languages over three thousand years all that deals with the redemption of man God had to bring His only Son to this earth he had to die a perfect death force in order to redeem us to God you know Jesus hung on the cross he said to the thief verily I say unto you this day you will be with me in paradise that thief that was on the cross didn't do good works he didn't jump down off the cross and get baptized he believed and I think that's a fundamental difference between Christianity and Judaism and in Islam is Jesus and what he did on that cross but let me just mention this according to the Islamic theology the Quran and the sayings of Muhammad peace be upon him you know prophet Jesus or any prophet by the way they have certain attributes and God has attributes to the perfection so we say that God is all-knowing his all-powerful he sustaining all of us he doesn't get tired he doesn't need to sleep right but if anyone is going to be God or son of God or is being taken as divine the person also has to have divine attributes for example if our Christian friends if they say that you know we take Jesus to be as God if they say that as one of the entities are one of the persons in the Trinity then the natural question the Muslims are going to ask is was he all-knowing was he was he all-powerful right so these are the National questions even a person who is outside of Islam Christianity Judaism he is going to ask suppose if a Hindu person is going to take some entities some man or some idol to be as God my national question would be was that entity all-knowing all-powerful eternal right because anyone who takes a state to be as God has to have those attributes so the Quran says in chapter five verse number seventy five that Jesus and Mary the boat used to eat means they're dependent on food in the same way in the New Testament many many times Jesus has mentioned some attributes of Jesus are mentioned by the way for example in the Gospel of Mark chapter 13 verse number 32 people came to ask Jesus when is the last day going to be Jesus Christ who we see as a Messenger of God he mentioned on their dare and of that hour no one no said no human nor Angels neither the son but only the father so we say that if one of the attributes of a go of God is that he is all-knowing that means Jesus also has to be all-knowing if he's not all-knowing that he cannot be God right simple logic correct so we say that yes Jesus as a Messenger of God he did not knew the last day so he was truthful he said I don't know that only God knows it God the Father right then when it comes to him having the power the miracles it's very important for us Matthew chapter 28 verse number 18 Jesus said that all the power in the universe is given to me so Jesus had all the power but who gave him the power by the way really important he had to lack the power to be given the power if he lacked the power that means he cannot be God God is I believe a triune being we see that clearly in all the Gospels you can go to the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist the father says this is my son and whom I am well pleased and then the Spirit of God descended upon him as a dove so that is one verse I would point to you is the triune nature of God realized that Jesus the Holy Spirit and God were one quart before creation say that this is my son this is my son so before you continue because you're a segment with multiple topics right so it's really important the sonship of Jesus is really similar to the sonship that God had with other prophets for example according to the Eastern Bible Dictionary the son of God is a person who is a righteous person right so a 2000 years ago classical Hebrew the language the way that this book is that it's a metaphorical way of saying that this is a righteous person this is a god-fearing person and that person is called as a son of God for example in the book of psalms chapter 2 verse number 9 David a prophet David a human being he is called as the begotten Son of God angels are called as sons and daughters of God right Joby's call is the son of God it's Roy Jacob is called is the son of God even Adam is called son of God the Son of God is a metaphorical way of someone who is a righteous person God is considered a son of God all the angels in the Bible are considered sons of God lowercase s every one of us in here is considered a son of God lowercase s there's only there's all the Bible with the Old Testament was written in Hebrew not Greek I'm not gonna argue at that point you may have a valid point there but everything is created by God is considered a son of God the way I understand it there's only one every title that Jesus has in the Bible is always uppercase letter son of God taking you back to your original question where in the bible does is talk about and I'm looking at Matthew chapter 3 verse 13 and from verse 13 to verse 17 and it says here but jesus answered and said to them per minute to be so now referring to the Baptist john the baptist was asking him why it was being baptized for thus it is fitting for us to us to fulfill all the righteousness then he allowed him when he had been baptized Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and aligning upon him and suddenly a voice came from heaven saying this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased this account is in every single one of the Gospels it's in Matthew Mark Luke and John so the son of God Jesus son that means his part of Trinity right Court when Jesus came down from heaven he came down to redeem man which by the way that's what the whole book of Ruth is about is about Redemption Jesus came down here he gave up his God ship he became servant he was no longer on equal footing with God the Father when he when he was born a perversion on this earth okay he relied on God the father's direction for his life he prayed every day that's why in the Garden of Gethsemane he was down kneeling sweating blood drops of blood praying to the father of this cup could pass from his hands he could do nothing apart from the father that doesn't mean that he's not the father of the Son of God and it does not deny his his final authority he gave up part of his god ship though to come here to save us and there are many that believe that he will bear that for eternity the main difference is that what is the concept of God is God absolute one monotheistic entity or he is it triune God right so it's really important for us to know and this is you know our salvation depends on this so important for us no prophet of the Old Testament ever proclaimed that God is three in one or God is a Trinity right no prophet by the way you know even prophet Moses peace be upon him when people asked him a fundamental question in the book of deuteronomy chapter number six verse number four when people asked him about God Moses mentioned here or Israel the Lord our God is only one and he said that you know this is so important tie it on your fingers and put it on your doorsteps and put it on all the places so they would always know that this is the truth the fundamental truth about God Abraham never mentioned about triune God Isaiah mentioned chapter 43 chapter 45 God is the first and God is the last so every single place in the Old Testament and by the lips of Jesus in the New Testament every single place it mentions about absolute oneness of God and the Jewish people when Jesus came by the way this is really important when Jesus came the Jewish people still believed in the absolute oneness of God and there were proclaiming and preaching and submitting Topanga if they were wrong where did he corrected them show me one place with all due respect by this naw dude be right sure with all due respect where Jesus said you know before you used to believe that God is only one and monotheistic entity but now I came to preach Trinity that God is 1 in 3 3 in 1 I'm God and worship me show me the most important place first of all in the Old Testament where any prophet preached the triune concept and grateful for the opportunity to be here today when I've read sacred texts I being an American I'm a mono linguist I read English translations I've read three different translations of the Quran but they were not translations that I was directed to because of their fidelity to the original they just happened to be books that I picked up would you be in a position to suggest particular English renderings of the Quran that that you particularly find useful accurate insightful thank you know when more translation could do just this okay does not man then from the Hebrew to any English translation or from the Greek to any translation same thing with Arabic to any translation with dead being said they are certain translation that are close to retaining the main message by the way right one of them is made by the sahih international so he international so that bits of translation in English so let me just write it down maybe then you can write it down in your notes if you want to the second one is this one this is locally produced yeah you have this one fine so this is pretty okay but the number one translation that I would go in English would be the sahih international translation and the spelling is this okay so the sahih international you can you can Amazon this by the way and find out and lo and behold this translation was done by a lady born and raised here then she converted to Islam then she moved to Saudi Arabia and became fluent in Arabic so she knows English the culture here and the culture and the linguistic beauty of Arabic and she did this translation by the way and she has a team of other converts ladies who converted from other religions to Islam and then this translation is by Mohammed and by Mustafa kitab so you can also use that one unless you want to buy this one it's fine from the store but both of these they do pretty good justice right sure sure Mahmoud a third translation is also good the only reason I skip that one so there are many by the way right Yousef Oh Liam it's a little bit more bulkier if you are into reading in depth then literally this big all right that one is also good by the way it is done by a person who used to be a Jewish scholar then he converted he became a Muslim scholar yeah yes yes wonderful Bob your head then most most of us good good yeah Mohammed I said by the way should I write down the name for you okay fine yeah my question is by the way I love the darkness really awesome my Laura thank you so much my question is I appreciate your message of loving each other but in chapter 5 verse 51 the Quran says o you who believe do not take Christians and Jews as friends so how can a Muslim be a friend of a Christian and Jew going against the Quran itself thank you alright so the question is how can you have all compassion you really working together if the Quran says you cannot take the Jews and the Christians as friends okay really important the language of the Quran is not English or Hebrew or Greek it is Arabic the word in Arabic is not friends by the way it does not say the friends in the word Arabic it says only our Hadiya means as protecting as a ally means you know sometimes okay so if you have the NATO forces or if then we have the NATO you know coalition of countries obviously they are going to stick together because they have some common platform right compared to perhaps the Chinese and the Russians or so correct however when it comes to working together for the betterment of humanity you can work with any people any faith or even no faith by the way and that was the example of Muhammad peace be upon him so when it comes to sharing a secret information correct or taking as protectors obviously the Muslims because we believe in the same way same culture the same theology but for the betterment of humanity you can ally with have alliance with any country with any race religion and culture as I mentioned that passage from the Quran 49 verse number 13 that God made all of you in two different nations and tribes and people that you get to know each other that means you know get to work with each other even Muhammad peace be upon him when a person was oppressed in Mecca Muhammad peace be upon him along with other people of different faiths they came together to give the justice to this person who was oppressed so he was a seller he sold the goods but they did not pay him the money right but Muhammad peace be upon him along with other people they came despite their theological differences they came together for working together for betterment of society so you have to take that in the bigger context our people um wanted to build a tower to heaven and God saw that what was happening and he changed their languages so that's how we got many languages of the world before he was born and during his time people used to have like really a hate and discrimination because of the color racial tensions used to be rampant tribal tensions used to be rampant but him by the mercy and guidance of God he brought together the people of different races and tribes and cultures together to such a degree that they used to stand next to each other as brothers and sisters and humanity in fact he made a really eloquent statement he said that an Arab is no superior to an non Arab you know at that time our ups used to feel that we are the chosen people we are the best right so he said an Arab is no superior to when an Arab and non-arab is no superior to an Arab a white person is no superior to a black person a black person is no superior to a white person all of your children of Adam and Adam was made from dust so that away is the racial tension people used to have so he brought all the cultures races and communities together to such a degree you know when Malcolm s when he was growing up in this country in the 50s and early 60s used to have lot of racial you know this code with the Caucasian people because of all the things going on at that time but after he converted to Islam he went to Mecca and in Mecca he did all the rituals with the people who are the whitest of the white the blackest of the black sheep RAID with them he did rituals with them he ate with them it was such a profound impact on his life that he wrote a letter to his friend in the u.s. saying that if America also embraces Islam all the racial problems are going to go away it's so impact so it's really important for us that yes there may be people of different races and tribes but we have to look it into the proper context so the best way interpretation of any passage of the Quran is what does other passages of the Quran says number one number two how did Muhammad peace be upon him how did he do the interpretation of that passage how did he practice that passage so when we look at the practice of that passage specifically the one that she have to not take the non-muslims and friends who used to have non Muslims the Jews and the Christians in Medina by the way you know when he moved from Makkah to Madinah so Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him he received the revelation when he was forty years of age and he was living in Mecca so he initially shade the message of Islam oneness of God for ten years in the city of Mecca few people accepted the message majority rejected that message to such a degree that they came after his life so he moved from Mecca to Medina so Medina is about two hundred and fifty kilometers or miles maybe four hours of right right suppose if you have a car if you write for four hours you get to Medina so when we moved from Makkah to Madinah the very first thing that he did he made a constitution which was all inclusive of the Jewish people you're listening right yeah it's very important so this constitution is the very first constitution that was all inclusive before the Geneva Convention the French conveyor Constitution the US Constitution before all of them they were the medina charter the medina charter says that the Muslims and Jewish people would be one people so the Muslims gave our Jewish friends our Jewish cousins autonomy avoids freedom to practice their faith and have their own cultures and synagogues freedom to have the old penal system and justice system so they were given total autonomy within the true Islamic state you know taking that really important Constitution dr. David Warren Steen a Jewish professor in the Jewish Journal calm May of 2012 he wrote this Jewish professor the title of his article was so what did the Muslims did to the Jews with the question mark and the article follows the very first sentence in the article is that Muslims saved the jury then he mentioned the reasons he said to two places two important ways the Muslims saved the Jewish people from them gate getting you know dismantled the first time is that and the advent of Islam where now the Jewish people they were preyed upon by the Romans and by the portions so Prophet Mohammed peace be upon him by the medina charter he gave them the protection he gave them the voice he gave them identity right according to the Jewish professor the second time Islam saved the Jewish people is right during the Spanish Inquisition remembering the Spanish Inquisition the Muslims and the Jewish people they were literally burn at the stake many of them forcefully converted to Catholicism and some of them are based on the births and deaths you know kicked out of Spain at that time the Muslims they opened our lands our homes and gave the protection to our Jewish cousins our Jewish friends in the northern part of Africa in Turkey and definitely in Palestine yes and that's a true history by the way of Judaism within Islam how Islam protected Judaism and give them identity so we have to look my friend when you bring up you know Muslims cannot be friends with Jews and Christians we have to look in the bigger context how did the Muslims and how did Muhammad peace be upon him did interpretation of that passage right so as I mentioned the medina charter was an all-inclusive charter that that says that the Muslims and Jews would be one people correct and then later on there were some Jewish people who did some treachery and they were punished they were not punished because they were Jews ever punished because they did the treachery if they were if they were Christians or even Muslims they would have equal justice to them to equal punishment so in that context these passages were revealed they do not take them because they are doing acts of you know conspiracy and treachery and spying for the people who are trying to dismantle Islam like the Koresh the the Meccans who used to kicked out Muhammad peace be upon him and the Muslims they keep on coming to destroy Islam to have barrel after barrel you know Muhammad peace be upon him had to fight 27 battles by them in his lifetime just protect the Muslim nation so in that context some of the Jewish not everyone by the way some Jewish people decided with the enemy and the Jewish and the Medina charter says that anyone used to side with the enemy there would be consequences so they sided with the enemy and there were consequences and they were punished and in that context that passage was revealed do not take the Jewish and the Christians means them the specific ones as your allies but anyone who is like neutral to you living in peace and harmony the Quran says you know just be as nice and peaceful with them so that's where Muhammad peace be upon him said you're not a believer if you eat your food and your neighbors are hungry the neighbor can be anyone by the way I do a Christian and atheist or person of any faith and we are supposed to be the nicest one to them to the neighbors and the neighborhood is a the whole humanity correct so it's very important for us to not take any passage are not I'm not picking on you by the way right it's important for us not to just read any passage out of context because there is a context to every single passage historical context context within certain incidents that happen within the life of the Prophet within the life all the Muslims within the life of the minority communities right within the Muslim nation so all of them have to be studied in that context so the Muhammad Assad translation give more context by the way it has a good commentary use of Ali translation also has a good commentary right these ones they don't have as much footnotes and commentary by the way but if you want to go in-depth you can get those other two translations my name is Vince again you would mention the injeel as directly directly written by jesus is that a central text in islam i i've never heard of it to be honest and is there a in translation of the injeel that you would recommend do we have one mentions the name of that revelation as in jail now in jail maybe just a oral revelation or a book we don't know for sure if it's an older revelation Jesus proclaimed that to his people some reminisce of that maybe in the New Testament but how do we know it as I mentioned if it aligns with what the Quran speaks about the oneness of God about Jesus being as a prophet but again we say that those books were given to those people at that time so there were people bound and time-bound because God in His infinite wisdom according to Islam he wanted to reveal the final book to the final prophet so for that reason he did not took the responsibility of preserving the previous books because he wanted the last book and he wanted to preserve that book and this last book for all of humanity and for all of time all right so we don't have a injeel even if you find an angel in some cave by the way we say that it is now obsolete currently yes on that and i think that's one of my problems as a left-wing theologian of christianity i personally do not believe just to say that that god stopped thinking at 600 when was the Quran revealed one year 676 so sick so 632 we didn't have the internet we didn't have bioethical debates we didn't have any number of things and I strongly believe that you know God's ongoing evolutionary creativity manifests itself and the problem that I see in all of the clashes that come from world religions including Catholic genocide and among Native Americans not because I'm certainly not picking on any one religion a lot of organized religions that have decided they had the truth have decided that anybody that didn't share their truth needed to kind of be you know taken care of I would ask you the question of this notion of subsequent revelation the Sufis for example I mean which is very much a mystical tradition have you done much studying of their traditions and the fact that they treat spirituality and God as an evolutionary developing process in other words that there is still revelation to come that things didn't freeze in the 7th century and never mind 2,000 years ago I believe you are alluding to the fact that you know why would God stop his connection with humanity and providing of guidance to people after the 7th century what we Muslims say well I mean forget about the Muslim side what does the Quran says Quran says in chapter number 5 verse number 3 that God has completed his revelation means the comprehensive revelation for all the people and all of time God has completed their and gave the name all Islam is the name of that comprehensive guidance Quran says in chapter 33 verse number 40 that Muhammad peace be upon him is the final prophet but now the question is don't we need for the revelation would we need further guidance for the continuous solutions that we need for our problems so the Muslims answer that by saying that whatever humanity needs Quran and the example of Muhammad peace be upon him has solutions to that doesn't matter if you are in the Internet age or the Space Age or be on Star Trek and Star Wars a the basic human core we are we would still be see we are still humans at the end we still have the human connection the human psychology the human problems doesn't matter what clothes that we wear and what what what he goes at right there at the end of the day humans so God God addresses our humanity with how humanity can connect with God doesn't matter if you're driving a spaceship or on a donkey or a camel we still need to have that connection so Quran provides and it's etiquette for that connection we humanity still have the problems about breakdown of the family structure racism homicide suicide gambling intoxicant all of these problems are there doesn't matter if you are six thousand years ago or in the 21st century so the Quran or Islam provides answers for those or any such kur some problem that may come in the future the Quranic message would be adequate to have the solutions to those problems so for that reason God in His wisdom does not deem to have new prophet after prophet whatever that we need now or in the future God has done that God has provided the guidance for that way and I do respect what your believe has that they may be subsequent revelations new prophets but this is what we believe and we said that this is the Word of God and what we need for our problems it's here and if you want to brings like any problem by the way that if I have the knowledge I will address that then what does Islam say about any problem that you may bring it all right so I hope that does answer the question so again just to summarize that question by the way that why don't we have new revelation because times have changed summary is that we at the core are still humans with human problems in psychology we need God's guidance and what we need is you know in here with all respect to what you believe right thank you [Music] has a revelation just as Paul proclaims in the New Testament that he has a revelation just as a multitude mystics subsequent in the Catholic tradition in the Sufi tradition and the Buddhist tradition have proclaimed that they had revelations the our ability I'm pretty big on philosophy and epistemology and how do we arrive at our knowledge the idea that we're simply taking because somebody said it's true or the Quran says it's true well the Bible says it's true that's entirely circular reasoning there's absolutely no way to go from Proclamation self Proclamation of truth to discernment of that truth except by what's within us and so this notion that that any of us and I'm not thinking of you at all but any religion anybody that says this is the truth how do you square or how you reconcile the difference between the Buddhists claiming that they haven't proved the Hindus the Zoroaster stand James the six the Baha'i and so or how do you I mean arbitrate between those theological and eloquent pops out my answer is that you do not cannot and and if we're going to ever move asked what defines us to what you talked about earlier is what unites us we almost have to set aside the things that we cannot prove that we enha negatively convinced somebody else because it's not about persuasion sure sure okay so again with all due respect we say that evidence for the Quran and Islam it's not a subjective evidence not circular reasoning we say that suppose if someone suppose if I were giving a lecture on authenticity of the Quran I would bring this five quick points I'm not going to go into details by the way point number one is the Quran itself says that it is the word from God chapter 32 verse number two in many places but then you may say that that again is circular reasoning I can write a book and I can say this is from God but at least the Quran says this is from God right number two is the Quran has many challenges to those people who don't take the Quran as the Word of God in especially in the time of Muhammad peace be upon him Arabic language was at its pinnacle they use to be masters of Arabic language to such a degree that you know we say that there is one Shakespeare in English language there used to be many Shakespeare's in every alley and locality maybe every house so those Shakespeare's at that time was given a challenge by Muhammad was not Muhammad peace be upon him but by the Quran by God if you don't believe this Quran is from God why don't you produce a book like the Quran this is in chapter 17 verse number 33 verse number 88 then they're not they were not able to by the way right you know just imagine a person Muhammad peace be upon him he was a illiterate person he did not go to school and college he did not knew how to read and write so that person is bringing a book and telling them this is from God if you don't believe it make a book like this they were not able to so then God reduce the challenge to ten chapters they were not able to again match ten chapters like the Quranic chapters then godfrid here's the challenge again to one chapter chapter 2 of the Quran verse number 23 says produce one chapter like the Quranic chapter in its eloquence in its historical facts and prophecy scientific facts guidance solution all of them come but they were not able to produce it right to such a they were at such a desperate state when they were defeated with this challenge they came physically to fight 27 battles to destroy Islam they could have done it intellectually it's not a circular argument ponic number three if Quran has prophecies example I will just give two prophecies maybe three prophecy number one Quran says that it is going to be protected you know a false prophet can say this proclamation of prophecy that my book would be protected and he can have all the soldiers in his time to protect the manuscript the book but then what guarantee that that false prophet has it after he dies it will still be protected so the Quran mentions a prophecy chapter fifteen verse number nine and the prophecy keeps on coming to be true 10 million people memorized it and it's been written down so there's a checks and balance between manuscripts and the older memory 10 million people prophecy about the Romans and our portions they used to be a battle between the two superpowers for many many centuries by the way at one battle in the year 614 the Romans were utterly destroyed by the Persians but then God made the prophecy that within three to nine years the Persians would be defeated in a land which is the lowest land on earth at that time the Muslims are going to rejoice this is in chapter 30 verse number 2 - verse number 5 - prophesies and one geographical truth prophecy number 1 the portions are going to get destroyed after they were victorious over the Romans and that prophecy was fulfilled number 2 the Muslims are going to be rejoiced so the Muslims were fighting one battle with the pagan people the idol worshippers and the Muslims were able to defeat the idol born the same day as the Romans were getting our victorious so two prophecies in three passages were fulfilled the historical fact is that the battle between the Romans and the Persians the Quran says it will happen in the lowest point on earth so what's the lowest point on earth by the way let's see huh I swap well I did not swim I floated in there five days ago yes yeah I did so the battle between Romans in purchase was fought exactly there by the way in the land right next to the Dead Sea so geographical fact and prophecy was fulfilled Quran speaks about prophecy that Pharaoh's body would be preserved Quran speaks about 500-plus scientific facts book of the seventh century speaking about modern 21st century fact science about embryology how embryos grows from the time it's like you cannot even see up until the time of the bird the stages are mentioned in the Quran Quran speaks about how the universe got started from one small primordial math and there was a split Quran speaks about in chapter 21 verse number 33 the rotation and the revolution of all the planets and all the celestial bodies the Sun the moon and all the things Quran speaks about the expansion of the universe chapter 51 verse number 47 and I can go on on and on so all of these are not subjective evidences these are objective evidences so this is not circular reasoning by the way so for that reason we say that there is a credibility authenticity to the Quran and by that to Islam and that credible book that particle witness is saying that Muhammad is the last prophet peace be upon him right so I hope you understand that we are coming from it's not circular reasoning facts and then future event that idea that the Quran captures the totality or the vital selecting I'm not being on the Koran doll that the Holy Bible that the Hindu scriptures that any set of scriptures captures the finality of the cosmos devise any logic as far as I'm concerned because there's a finite number of words number one there's a finite number of words that we have in our vocabulary and number two and I would imagine that God is infinite I think we would all upset that so I'm suggesting that we were all if all of the people one of the things all I have about my faith that you mentioned is it divine they accepted the Islam is a path to God the Christianity is a path to God and so on the Judaism is a path that particular Bay has prospects for peace it's hard for me to imagine a set of faiths that say we have one path to God ever living in complete peace with somebody else it says we have the one path to God so it's the squaring this without all fundamentalism by the way I mean on Christian and Islam and other side say we have the one path because everything you just said about prophecies or the book of revolutions of revelations that's been dissected a thousand to one times there you're probably familiar with premillennial dispensationalism and rapture theory and everything else like tarantia they make exactly as in fact an argument that you made about we had it right we predicted this or that and so I still get back to as you said and they said and there's no way to arbitrate that except internally discerning our own reality or on the theology you know just making a short comment and bottom to be ain't okay fine oh we have a couple of more questions it's really important for us I mean I do respect Baha'i faith and all the other faiths you know I went to buy it until many time by the way right it's a good structure up there when I go there I do have some discussions with the bahai scholars and I do I do ask them the question that how can you say reasonably that Christianity Judaism Hinduism Taoism all of them are true all the books are true and Krishna is a Messenger of God and all of their because these books even though they have a lot of overlapping lot of good guidance right they do contradict in certain major theological aspect how can they be true because in Christianity the triune concept in Islam it goes against Trinity it says absolute monotheism in Christianity Jesus died in Islam Jesus did not die there is no concept of shedding of blood how can you reconcile Allah has I asked them the question there are different paths so what pair does behind some has by the way for salvation right they either have to choose the path of Christianity Islam Judaism Hindu nor choose all of them because they contradict the concept of salvation so it's not a reasonable way to reconcile with all due respect eminently that the high is a truer base than all of the previous or an anger religion on the simple basis and they own base their their faith on a set of beliefs of Senate dogmas that a creature were revealed creeds and dogmas but because they're operating in a different level and it ultimately is a level of compassion it isn't that compassion that grounds why they might not I happens a lot by faith but the behind thing which is one of the most modern of the religions and until 1815 forty something I believe it was revealed the my faith was about centering on a theology of compassion and recognizing that all the stuff we do to talk because frankly one of the Mary Mary was a virgin or not has nothing to do with whether we fed our neighbor nothing whether there's a Trinity or whether there's monotheism has nothing to do with whether we better are hungry neighbor nothing and so when we keep debating these things that have nothing to do with what Jesus which we all admit the one common thread said one your neighbor why are we killing each other ultimately I mean in this room but I mean there's a lot of feeling going on in the world in the name of a faith in a loving God whether that's of Islam or whether that's Christianity in Africa right how Christians kill Muslims Muslims kill you know Christians relatively regularly all in the name of the loving God maybe if we oriented towards a theology of compassion and not a parsing of who diet right on some believe that that's really the essence and that's where I would argue that revelation is always happening and that it's that revelation and there's I've read the Mystics a lot of mystic cabins let's move on it although the Islan tradition and yet the Christian tradition Buddhism meister eckhart st. John across st. Teresa was so there's a number of messages in the Christian tradition if you read them I suspect that they do measure up to what we were talking about the Shakespearean equivalence there in terms of the quality of the the interior castle for example but st. Teresa now if you read the Mystics in Christianity beyond just the Bible but there's a lot of revealed truth that's happened since Muhammed and since Jesus by mine recognize that the last 37 years immersed in that literature so I just want to continue this idea that any one set of books has the complete truth I just Muhammad Li resist that notion okay I mean again we respect that you know when Islam was a kind of the main religion especially in Spain and Bach Dada and Damascus and Egypt in those regions our non-muslim minorities they were very prosperous by the way so if your notion is that you know only Baha'i faith can bring that prosperity and unity compassion I may not fully agree with that because Islam has brought that you know Islam was a ruling or Muslims were ruling Spain for about 750 years our Jewish friends they had the Golden Age of Judaism under the Muslim Spain so Islam did bring by the way prosperity to the minorities you know some of the oldest churches and the synagogues are in the Muslim land protected for many many centuries more than thousand years same thing with our Christian friends are when you go to Egypt their Lord no less than 15 million Coptic Christians living in that region when I went to Palestine as I came back last night by the way the Palestinians were saying that exactly the same thing that Muslims and you know Christians we are like brothers we live with each other you know without any discord it is the geopolitical situation that is creating it's not religion by the way according to one survey 66% of the cause friction going on it's not because of religion is because of geopolitical situation because of power greed hunger oil land these are the culprit it's not religion by the way and atheism also we have to bring into it so again the notion is that and we can wrap up with this by taking one more question there would always be people there in matter of any faith or no faith who are in minority but they are the ones causing the trouble and there people are painting the whole religion with the paint of what they're doing you know just like KKK is giving a bad name to Christianity some of the Buddhist monks were doing genocide ethnic cuisine in Burma they're giving bad name today to Buddhism some of the people from the Jewish faith who are doing atrocities to the palace I have been there by the way you know the Jewish sectors they get seven days of fresh water just beyond that the Palestinian the Christians and the Muslims are living they only get one day of water disparity right disparity they're giving a bad name to the faith of Judaism so the problem is not the faith by the weight of some people because of their own Hey racism bias Gris all of these far so I'm not going to blame any faith so again majority of the people of all face a good majority of the people of no faith are good the main proclamation is this is what Islam says about Jesus concept of God and salvation and they do respect the belief of all of you so let's work on the commonalities but you know we have so many things in common by the way you know just from the Muslim side I mean same thing from the Christians to when the hurricane Harvey happened almost all the mosque in Houston area Greater Houston we open our doors to welcome doesn't matter we haven't had the checklist are you a Muslim you can come in windows you cannot no checklist every person was welcome when the earthquake happened in Haiti about six seven years ago ten thousand people we're treated there for the physicians going up there and we did not have the chapel is there are you a Muslim Jew Christian what faith they were humans and we treated so if we take that to heart by the way the teachings of Jesus and Moses and Muhammad peace be upon incoming from God that is what is going to give us the lasting peace the lasting unity and the lasting justice I hope you all agree view there right so can we depart on that very good friendly note they may always be differences let's come to the common platform and the only way to get peace in the middle we should not work for peace we should work for justice if we take the life of a Muslim equal to the life of a Jew a Christian a Hindu a Buddhist if we take all life's as equal that means we can do equal justice when justice is done equally the outcome would be nothing less than peace so I hope and pray that we do justice so peace would be the outcome not just inner peace but peace in our families in the US and in all the world and may God bless us all thank you very much anytime we deviate into the intellectual divorced from compassion the mothers the Virgin Mary's birth does not impact our operating with compassion the theological facts of this or that prophecy do not impact our acting and compassion that we end up creating opportunities for division and everything you said about unification I am a hundred percent on board with but I argue that all of that is about universal human dignity and compassion for one another hi my name is rich and I just want to thank you for the presentation today as the devout Christian who follows the teachings of Christ I wanted to come here to get a better understanding of what Islam was and the Islam's perspective on who Jesus was and what he did can't say that I necessarily agree with everything that's in the Quran but I did find it informative and worth my time and we require all my Christian brothers and sisters to at least come and see what it is that Islam believes from my perspective Jesus as though is the way the truth and the life and nobody comes to the Father except through him I must grant an a retired businessman restaurant owner and I just converted to Muslim Islam a month ago yesterday so it's very exciting for me to be here the discussion today was I thought was excellently the depth of the questions from the room were were were were just really bright intelligent challenging and I doctors feel did an incredible job I think of addressing each of the rather touchy and well thought out questions so it was there's a very very with while afternoon for sure what what made you accept us I met a beautiful young lady who is Muslim and I was taken by her belief in her religion and her commitment to Islam and I had not really met many people who lived their religion instead of just sort of practice that are talked about it so from that I converted we got married a couple weeks ago and I'm going to see her tomorrow and for in Paris France thank you

Channel: ICNA

Views: 74,665

Keywords: icna, islam, muslims, whyislam, GainPeace, muslim, family, day, young, ym, icna.org, icnarelief, ilf, islamic, hhrd, helpinghand

Id: G8gKtEiKHZI

Length: 143min 5sec (8585 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 03 2018