It is along story but worth reading!!!
By: S. Ghaffan
I was born of staunch Catholic Christian parents. My father was a preacher who
knew the Bible almost by heart my mother, an orthodox Catholic, would only give
us the morning coffee after her return from Church.
Even from my youngest days, I was made to memorize certain verses from the
Bible.
By the time I had completed the study of all the four Gospels and knew many
important verses, in those four books, by heart.
My father sometimes took me along with him when he went to preach, and from the
special attention he paid to my knowing certain controversial points, and his
teaching me the methods of explaining to the others those intricacies, it was
quite obvious that he wanted me to succeed him in his profession. The strong
desire of the paternal love to make me a priest was implemented by educating me
with a detailed knowledge of the Bible and the science of ministering it to
others. By the time I reached the Form IV in school I could preach the gospels
in my own way, supervised by my father. Many senior missionaries admired my
knowledge of the important doctrines of the faith. I passed the Form VI and
joined College. There I came in contact with several classmates who were
Protestants, and some of whom were well versed in the study of the Protestant
Bible.
I often met my Protestant classmates and discussed matters regarding differences
in our faith and the performance of rituals. There were also some Muslim
students, but I met them only in the play ground as I hated meeting Muslims whom
I took to be dangerous fanatics. By the time I completed the first year in
College, I was sufficiently grounded in the knowledge of the Christian faith as
held by the Catholic Church and had also considerable knowledge of the
Protestant view point. Appreciating this knowledge of the Catholic faith in my
young age I was given a scholarship from the church funds and in return for the
help I received, I was required to receive special coaching in the guidance of
deeper thoughts about certain parts of the Holy Book, under of the Chief Priest
of the Church who loved to teach me very much and was very intimately attached
to me. He used the special devotional methods of worshiping Jesus and his Holy
Mother. Having appeared in the first group for my intermediate course I used to
sit working at his subjects till late at night.
One night when all were asleep and I was absorbed in my studies an idea suddenly
struck my mind to examine the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the Basic formula of
the Christian faith. The question, how three different things can be one and the
same, arose in my mind i.e. how anything singularly absolute in its unity with
its indivisible oneness, can ever by itself become divided into three separate
beings with three variant native attributes opposed to each other justifying the
distribution into the three different entities.
My failure to reconcile my belief in the Trinity with the reasoning of the
science of logic, created a mental restlessness in me. Days passed on and many a
time I thought of asking my father to help me in solving the problem which was
puzzling my mind. But I knew that my father would never appreciate the least
doubt in the dogmatic belief of the Catholic School and my venture to discuss
anything hated by the Catholic faith, would only create further problems in my
domestic life. However, one day when I found my father in a happy mood, I asked
him as to how he would defend the Christian faith in the Holy Trinity against
the attacks from the members of the other religions of the world. The answer
was:
“In matters of faith one has to stop reasoning. One should belief in the
doctrine only by one’s heart and mind.”
This reply from my father upset me further more and disappointed me to a very
great extent and all my thinking got centered in the question which had become a
definite problem to puzzle my mind further and I wondered saying:
“What! Is this the Foundation upon which is built the huge edifice of the
Christian faith? Is the basis of my own faith only a matter of a blind following
of some dictated belief which can never stand reasoning or the independent
scrutiny by the dispassionate and impartial arguments from the clean
conscience?”
I became much worried and made up my mind to find some arguments to somehow make
my much disturbed mind at least imagine that one could at one and the same time
be three different persons, and the three different persons could at the same
time remain one.
One day our Mathematics Professor was sitting alone in his room and I got in
with his permission and asked him if he would help me to solve something which
to me was an intricate and a perplexing problem. He very kindly asked me what it
was. I told him to explain to me in what sense one and the same person could be
three different beings, and the same three different beings with their
individual differences could at the same time be the indivisible absolute one?
Glorious Quran
Listen to the beautiful recitation of the Glorious Quran [Maryam (Mary)] The
Professor smiled and said:
“Is it that you do not like my stay in this college?”
I asked him: “Why Sir?”
He said:
“What do you think the college authorities which are staunch Catholics will do
with me, if some one informs them that I discuss in my private room things
opposed to the Catholic or the Christian faith in general? Will they keep me on
the staff of the College any longer? If you want to discuss anything here, you
may do so but mind you, you must confine your discussion to the subject of your
studies in the College, otherwise you will be doing the worst harm to me for I
will be thrown out of my job.”
I felt the truth in his statement and made an appointment with him to see him
the next Sunday at 3.00 pm in his house.
On Sunday when I met the Professor he first asked me as to what made me enquire
into the Doctrine of Trinity. I said that I wanted to know how far the doctrine
stood to reasoning?
The Professor smiled and said, “Why don’t you ask any one of our priests?”
I said “I have asked them but they say it is a matter of belief or faith and it
should not be subjected to any logic or philosophy. This has upset me It his has
raised the question in me, if what I believe in, is unreasonable and illogical,
why should I subject myself to any blind following? Is God so unjust and cruel
to expect man to believe in a doctrine about Himself, which no human brain can
ever reasonably conceive? I request you, Sir; to some how give me some method of
arguing out the possibility of such an existence as the doctrine of Trinity
wants us to believe in!”
The professor smiled and said: “My dear Joseph suppose you want me to prove by
some mathematical formula how water can remain water and at the same time be
fire, or how a stone can be a stone at the same time be water too, how can I do
it? I do not think any sensible man on earth can ever conceive such a
possibility. How the Ever living God who being the Ever living Life itself, can
also at the same time be a mortal i.e. be a man to suffer death at the hands of
the other mortals? And how the same mortal being at the same time could be the
Absolute Immortal God? It is a problem which our priests want us to believe and
we have to merely believe in it and none has any choice of even questioning the
practicability of this inconceivable dogma.”
On hearing the answer I asked him: “Then, what about you, Sir? Don’t you also
believe in it?”
He replied: “It is a matter of my own personal and individual choice and
decision. Even if I or the world, were to believe in such a doctrine the
liability still remains for every believer to answer the question if he or she
can prove the doctrine as a reasonable or practical phenomena.”
He went on saying; “The fact is when God, Whom we believe as One, is Absolutely
One Being in His perfect unity, it means that God is singularly one in natural
essence of His existence, free from any different or variant factors having
anything to do with His pure or Absolute Unity to justify His being The Absolute
One, owing an indivisible existence, by Himself. Division suggests that the one
is not an Absolute One, but a compound of some variants and that which is a
composed being can never be really one in the true meaning of oneness. And
certainly the one dependent in its existence upon its different components can
never be independent in its action, whereas God is the Absolute One,
Independently Omnipotent in His Will and His Action.
“Besides how can any three which are three separate beings, with three
variations justify their being three separate entities, remain there separately
as they are and at the same time by themselves lose their different individual
native properties differentiating them from each other, and become conceivably
the absolute indivisible one, without the least variation in the essential
oneness.
“An Absolute one must be totally independent in its existence, Mr. Joseph, as it
impossible to reason out the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The science of
Mathematics or any other science which any human genius can ever conceive, until
the end of time, can never solve this inconceivable riddle.”
He continued:
“The only thing is that we, Christians, are shut out of the vast sources of
knowledge about the truth and of the higher factors in matters of religion which
are available outside our own fold, by damning every non-Christian as the
devil’s work. We Christians, Mr. Joseph, in our madness to swell up our ranks
have played such a disgraceful role that a great head like Sir Dennison Ross had
to helplessly disclose the truth about this in his foreword to the translation
of the Quran by George Sale.”
I was amazed to hear the arguments of the Professor who was himself known as a
Catholic, and at the same time I was very much encouraged to know that my doubt
about the unreasonability of the doctrine of Trinity was something which had
made a highly educated and enlightened mind like the Professor of Mathematics
also to enquire into it. I was much benefited by the discussion with the
Professor as I came to know arguments justifying the doubt created in my mind.
My study of the matter in the Islamic Literature, and the translation of the
Quran opened my eyes to many great and very important factors that effect human
life on earth. Once I visited the Professor in his house and to my further
amazement I found him possessing a great amount of literature on Islam.
I asked him:
“May I know, Sir, if you have embraced the faith of the Muslims?”
He replied:
“It is a question yet to be decided. You do not worry yourself about my personal
choice. I, for the time being, want to be known as no other than a Catholic
Christian. I will tell you later.”
I took the copy of the translation of the Quran by George Sale and read the
introduction by Sir E. Dennison Ross. The introduction needs to be read with
special attention. Sir Ross says:
“For many centuries the acquaintance which the majority of Europeans possessed
of Muhammadanism was based almost entirely on distorted reports of fanatical
Christians which led to the discrimination of a multitude of gross calumnies.
What was good in Muhammadanism was entirely ignored and what was not good in the
eyes of Europe was exaggerated or misinterpreted.
“The unity of God and that the simplicity of his creed was probably a more
potent factor in the spread of Islam than the sword of the Ghaziz.” (G. Sale’s
translation of the Koran – Introduction).
This statement of the great Christian scholar of international repute, created
in me the thirst to know the original teachings of Islam, especially about the
Islamic conception of God.
About four years passed away, and by this time I knew the contents of the Quran.
Many things had arrested my special attention. I had discussed many doubtful
points with the Professor whom I found to have read the Quran several times with
a better and more critical view. I was now longing to meet some Muslim scholar
to cross-examine him about certain doubts about the Islamic faith.
Once I thought of Hinduism but what I saw daily with my own eyes, curses of
untouchability and the reservations of the caste system prevalent before us, and
besides everything else, the idol worship and the observance of innumerable
rituals did not prompt me to take up any enquiry into the tenets, the practice
of which manifested in the daily life of the millions of Hindus living with us.
I could never understand the superiority exclusively and arbitrarily claimed for
the members of certain castes, simply because they had accidentally been born in
those folds. I had seen with my own eyes how the people belonging to certain
castes are imagined as lower in the society and are treated as the untouchables,
not allowed even to enter into the Hindu temples. I had seen these poor souls
being prohibited even to take drinking water from the wells reserved for the
superior classes.
I met several Brahmin Pandits but none of them could answer any one of my
objections against the several Hindu theories regarding the authorities of the
hundreds of gods and goddesses and the observance of the rituals which did not
appeal to me in the least.
The havoc in the social life played by Hinduism dividing humanity into castes
and sub-castes and the unreasonable superiority of one caste over the other, is
itself so much repulsive that none would like to take any trouble of executing
any studies about the doctrines of the faith.
While resenting the caste system and the sectarian segregation in the Hindu
folds, I was automatically reminded of the similar restrictions amongst
Christians. Caste hatred has been sunk so deep in the minds of the Hindus that
even after entering Christianity they are unable to overcome the complex.
I asked myself:
“Why criticize other people and their belief when the religion which I myself
belong to, has in it the sectarian segregation of the Brahmin Christian, the
Naidu Christian, the Chuckli Christian and similar sectarian differences, having
full sway over the social order? Are not churches in Christendom owned
exclusively for the members of particular sects? Are there not churches
belonging to a particular sect which cannot be used by the people of the other
sect? Has not Christianity failed to unite mankind into one human society? Did
Jesus preach all these differences and dissensions which we the Christians have
innovated? Is it not then that we are far away from the original objects of the
Mission of Jesus Christ?”
Against the irreconcilable differences and the innumerable dissensions of the
social order in the folds of Hinduism and Christianity, I was very much
impressed by the genuine and the real brotherhood practiced day and night among
the Muslims. I found that a Muslim mosque is a mosque belonging to every one who
calls himself a Muslim and that there is no reservation of seats in the mosque
or any sectarian segregation in any of the Muslim places of worship. I saw with
my own eyes, Muslims of all ranks, all social and economic status, of different
complexions, of various nationalities, all standing in one row, turning towards
one direction, praying to one God, in one language, and immediately after the
prayer, shaking hands with each other. Brotherhood or social equality claimed
more in theory by the other schools of thought in the world, I found it to be an
ever experienced, and a living reality in the daily life of the Islamic folds.
One day I was informed by the Professor who by this time had become an intimate
friend of mine that a Muslim scholar was to deliver some talks in English on the
life of the Prophet of Islam in a Hall near the Big Juma Mosque, under the
auspices of the Muslim Youth Association of Trichinopoly Town. My Professor and
I, both attended the three talks and met the Lecturer who was an old friend of
the Professor. We had a heart to heart talk with the Lecturer about several
important topics. The Lecturer presented to me a few more back numbers of the
magazine ‘The Peace Maker.’
And as for Ishmael I have heard thee, Behold, I have blessed him and will make
him fruitful, and I will multiply him exceedingly, Twelve Princes shall he beget
and I will make him a great nation. Gen. 17:20 During my meeting with the
Muslim Lecturer I asked him if he would kindly answer some questions for my own
information. He said:
“I will most willingly do it.”
I put the following questions which he very cheerfully answered:
“What proofs have you besides the Quran to establish that Muhammad was truly a
Prophet of God?”
He answered: “Have your own Bible with you, I said, “Yes.”
He took the following verses and read them to me one after another:
The Acts. 3
Verses: 22 “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your
God raise unto you of your brethern, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all
things whatsoever he shall say unto you.”
Verses: 23 “And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that
Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.”
Verses: 24 “Yea! And all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after,
as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.”
The Acts. 7
Verses: 37 “This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A
Prophet shall the Lord raise up unto you of your brethern, like unto me; him
shall ye hear.”
John 14 Jesus says:
Verses: 16 “I will pray the Father, and he shall give another comforter – that
he may abide with you forever.”
16:12 “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now.”
16:13 “Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you unto all
truth for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that
shall he speak; he will show you things to come.”
I read the passages which I had already gone through several times before, but
this time the perfect confidence with which the Lecturer asked me to read the
verses from my own sacred scriptures in support of his claim, threw a new light
upon them for me to understand the matter dispassionately. Yet I replied:
“But the prophecy is about the advent of Jesus?”
He smiled and said:
“You read the verse again! Does not the verse say that God will raise a Prophet
like unto Moses” i.e. He will be a man born of a father and a mother as was born
Moses; whereas Jesus was born only of a mother. Besides, the Prophet promised by
God must be a man like Moses but you yourself call Jesus as the son of God.
Moses was a law giving Prophet and the one like him must also be a law-giver,
whereas Jesus was only a law-abider, following the law or the Ten Commandments
already introduced through Moses. Besides, one must betray his common sense as
well as his learning to say that, I and He, the two different person i.e. The
First and the Third person mean the same, or the one who departs prophesying
about the advent of some one else, to be one and the same.”
The argument was quite reasonable and unbreakable.
Then I asked the Lecturer:
“Do you not believe in Jesus as the son of God? Cannot Jesus be God himself in
the form of a man?”
The Lecturer smiled and very cheerfully replied.
“Can there be a son to any one without a wife, my friend? Can anyone, or you
yourself, who believes in the sonship of Jesus, at any time sensibly imagine
Virgin Marry to have been used by God as a wife was done to conceive an issue?
Let us seek protection of God against any such devilish straying of our minds.
Sonship, if used in the Bible, can be used only to mean a creature or the one
who has received life from God. Otherwise what do you say about Jesus addressing
himself as a son of man.
Luke 7:34 “The son of man is come eating and drinking and ye say, behold a
gluttenous man, and a wine biber, a friend of publicans and sinners.”
Luke 9:26 “The son of man be ashamed.”
“Jesus addressed God as his father and also as our father which means that God
is taken as the father of Jesus as much as He is the father (or the Creator) of
any one of us, and hence Jesus’ sonship can mean in the sense of a creature of
God, the term son of God used by Jesus can be used only in sense of a servant of
God – as Jesus himself refers to himself as God’s servant. This fact is
testified by the Verses by which every prophet of God until Adam has been termed
as the son of God in Luke 3rd Chapter in verses from to 30 Jesus is called as
the son of Joseph and the genealogy of Joseph is traced to Adam and Adam is
called the son of God. Read the 30th verse of the same chapter.”
Luke 3:37 “Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the
son of Adam, which was the son of God.”
(These ready answers from the Bible created a very deep impression upon my mind
about the mount of comparative study the Muslims do and how strong and
reasonable they are in their faith about Unity of God. One can say that the
faith of the Muslims is not a matter of mere blind following of any prescribed
belief in unreasonable dogmas but it is the result of a sincere comparative
study of the various schools of though.)
I asked the Lecturer:
“Do you Muslims study every other religion before you embrace Islam?”
The lecturer replied:
“No. Even as we remain Muslim, born of Muslim parents, we have been commanded by
God to compare and contrast the truth, i.e. Islam, with every other faith and
then own for ourselves a belief or conviction of our own which alone shall be
acceptable to God as mere blind following of any particular doctrine, be that
from our own parents, will not be of any credit to such a believer. Read what
the Holy Quran enjoins upon those who have already professed Islam as their
faith merely by heredity.
I asked:
“Do you believe in the Holy Bible as a Heavenly Book or not?”
In reply to my question the Lecturer requested me to answer the following
questions:
1). “Is the Bible, which is in your hands, the book which Jesus wrote as a
scripture revealed by God or to be called the book of his own?”
I had to say, “No.”
2). “Did Jesus order or desire at any time in his life to write anything on his
behalf?”
“No.”
3). “Was this Bible which is in your hands written during the time of Jesus?”
“No.”
4). “Was this Bible which is in your hands today written immediately after the
departure of Jesus?”
“No.”
“Then” he said, “Please read page 17 in ‘The Founder of Christianity and His
Religion’ published by the Christian Literature Society, Madras. It is said in
the Book:
The whole Bible contains sixty six books written by forty different authors over
a space of about fifteen centuries.
It is clearly said in the book that:
‘Jesus Christ himself wrote nothing.’
Oral teaching was for several years – the only means employed in the spread of
Christianity. It was for the guidance of those young converts, that the earliest
writings of the New Testament were composed.”
The same book further discloses that:
“They were probably written about twenty years after the death of Christ.”
On page 18 it is stated:
“The Gospels do not give a complete history of the Life of Christ, they are
rather memoirs.”
I said:
‘But the Bible is the word of God inspired and written by the disciples of
Jesus’
He again smiled and said:
Mr. Joseph, if the Bible is the Book of the disciples and of Jesus, how would
you account for the differences in the Book, if it is an inspired word of God.
Does not the Catholic Bible Duay contain some books which the Protestant version
does not own?
Have you read what Mr. Wilson says about the Bible, in his introduction to the
‘Diaglot’ published by the Watch Tower Society?
“If it had not been published by kingly authority it would not now be venerated
by English and American Protestants, as thought it had come direct from Cod. It
has been convicted of containing over 20,000 errors. Nearly 700 Creeks MSS. are
how known and some of them very ancient whereas the translator of the common
version had only the advantage of some 8 MSS none of which was earlier then the
tenth century.
“Is not the Bible based upon only 8 manuscripts whereas there are 700
manuscripts now available? If what is contained in all such manuscripts is also
the inspired word of (God, why were these manuscripts left away? In view of all
these facts brought to your light, if you still believe in the Bible as the
inspired word of God, you may do so but you can’t expect the whole world to do
it. If you make a serious and an impartial study of the Old and the New
Testaments, you will find in them the amount of blasphemies which the Jewish
mind has fabricated against Lot, David, Noah and Abraham who were the Holy
Apostles of God viz:
Gen. 9:20 “And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.”
And he drank of the vine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two
breathren without.
“And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon their father; and their
faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.”
Gen. 19:36 “Lot committing adultery with his own daughters”
II. Sam, 11:4 David taking possession of his neighbor’s wife.
I asked, “What? Do you Muslims believe in the prophets of God other than
Muhammad to be totally sinless and holy?”
He answered me by reciting to me the following verses of the Holy Quran.
2:136 “Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us
and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and
the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the prophets
received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto
Him we have surrendered.”
“The Apostle (Muhammad) believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord,
and so do the believers, (i.e. Muslims) they all believe in Allah (God) and his
angels, His book (the different holy scriptures) and His Apostles; we make no
difference between any of His apostles.”
The following verse of the Holy Quran informs us of the fact that Prophets were
raised by God, among all nations in all parts of the earth.
35:24 “There is not a nation but a Warner has gone among them.”
It convinced me that Islam alone, is an all comprehensive faith which recognizes
all other religions and which contains in it a perfectly harmonious integration
of all the good, found partly in the other religious orders of the world. The
sacred book of Islam i.e. the Holy Quran, is the final exposition of the Divine
Truth in its Perfection which was revealed at different times, through the other
heavenly scriptures, in parts suiting the various evolutionary levels.
The above verses of the Holy Quran bear clear of conception by the human minds.
The limitation testimony to the, fact that, as one of the fundamentals of the
human mind of the different ages, did not of his Faith, every Muslim has to
believe not only allow even prophets like Jesus to speak out the whole in the
Holy Prophet Muhammad but in all the other of the truth. Jesus had to depart
with many things prophets as truthful and holy and should not make yet to be
told to his people. (John. 16:14). Jesus had to tell his people to wait until
the advent of the Spirit of Truth to disclose the whole of the Truth. (John
16:13)
I was further impressed by the Universal aspect of the religion Islam.
Every answer from the Lecturer was with an unchallengeable authority and with an
unbreakable argument. I was awakened to differentiate between genuine truth and
the fabrications of falsehood and to know many new factors to which I was blind
all these years. But I did not know how to reconcile the dawn of true knowledge
of truth with my original blind dogmatic belief and my belonging to the
Christian faith any longer. I wanted to find out some failure on the part of the
Lecturer to answer satisfactorily some questions or the other, so that I may
have some excuse, be that even a false one, to maintain my position in the
Christian faith.
The Lecturer continued after some time with the question:
“Shall I ask you something if you do not mind answering it for my information?”
I said: ‘Yes’.
He asked: “Do you think Jesus to be a son of God or God himself?”
I said: ‘Jesus, according to the Christian belief is God Himself in the form of
His Son.’
He asked: Can you ever conceive anyone to be the immortal God and at the same
time be a mortal (Man) to be caught in the hands of other mortals to suffer
death?
“Can anything be high and at the same time low, black and at the same time be
white? Can there be darkness and the same time light? What philosophy is this?”
The Lecturer continued saying:
“Do you ever consider that there is one other question confronting the doctrine
of the Trinity which needs to be answered by every Trinitarian that if any three
different beings which are three different entities, are also at the same time
One, with absolute unity in all the perfect sense or meaning of Oneness, what is
the common control which makes them remain three and also be one at one and the
same time? If there be any factor of such a wonderful and inconceivable
phenomena causing this amazing effect, then that supreme causative power, which
controls the number and the unity, will alone be the Omnipotent God and not any
one of the three which are only the controlled components.
“Besides, there arises another problematic question which a believer in the
Trinity will have to answer i.e. as to whom is that controls or determines the
splitting of one into only three different others, to be neither more nor less
in number? There must be some cause for this controlled effect and that the
causative factor acting supreme over three will be the Omnipotent God and not
any one of the three which will only be the effect of the supreme controlling
cause.
“Similarly, will arise the question, what is the causative power which affects
the three to be only one when joining together and not divided into many groups
of beings and if there be any such cause, that supreme controlling cause will be
the Omnipotent God and not anyone of the three which will only be the
subservient one.
Under any circumstances no sensible man can ever reasonably believe in any
effect whatsoever without some causative factor effecting it.
“However the Holy Trinity is only a problematic doctrine created by the
Christian Church which no logical reasoning can ever prove true.”
I had to helplessly agree to the views of the Lecturer for I could not now
reasonably believe in the existence of anything being itself and at the same
time being its own opposite.
“I would like you, Mr. Joseph” said the Lecturer, “to ponder a little over the
belief that Jesus being God Himself or the son of God, was so terrified at the
impending crucification that he shouted:
Matthew 27:46 “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani” (My God, My God, hast thou forsaken
me?)
“What philosophy is that? If Jesus was God Himself, does it mean that God was
forsaken by God Himself and can that be God who felt hopeless and shouted to be
rescued?
“Your Bible itself, Mr. Joseph, reports that the son of God was forsaken by his
father (God) in which case the forsaken son automatically and quite naturally
forfeits his personal merits as a son and his relationship of being a son to his
father. What do you say? Of what profitable use can the attachment to a forsaken
son be? Mr. Joseph, please tell me.”
I was struck dumb – I did not know what to say and what to do with the faith I
already possessed as a staunch Christian.
“Besides,” the Lecturer continued: “Do you think Jesus to be God Himself when he
falls down crying, praying to someone else to remove the cup of death by
crucification?”
I asked:
“Alright Sir, how do you reconcile the violence used by the Prophet of Islam to
his being an Apostle of God?”
Immediately came the reply from the Lecturer.
“Please, Mr. Joseph, quote a single instance from the whole life history of the
Holy Prophet Muhammad to show that he has ever committed any unprovoked
aggression or any single instance of his taking the least initiative in
attacking any single soul. Each expedition of a battle he led or he allowed was
only in self-defense. Had he not defended as he did, today his advent in this
world and his teachings about the truth about God which the world has learnt
only through his holy mission, would have become legends of ancient times full
of blasphemies for you and for me, only to be read in story books and thus be
deluded by falsehood for all times. The Bible does not preach self-defense. The
Bible only preaches self-surrender to the extent of handing over everything of
one’s possession when anything which was in one’s hand has been taken away by
any aggressor. Does any Christian power follow this?
“Apart from the political history of the Christian nations of Europe do you not
remember the inhuman methods employed by Christendom to spread its faith?”
I was ashamed to hear what has been reported and I had to listen quietly to the
records of the disgraceful conduct of the Christians. I, at last, ventured to
ask one more question. ‘There is the doctrine of atonement or expiation of sins
of men through the blood of Jesus. Jesus having paid the price of the sins of
man i.e. he who believes in Jesus is cleansed and saved. Have you any such
accommodation in Islam?’
The Lecturer smiled and replied:
“My friend, the greatest of God’s gifts to man is common sense. If man forfeits
it of his own accord, then none can help him.
“First let me know if this doctrine appeals to reason and common sense. A, for
example, a Christian by faith i.e. a believer in Jesus Christ as his Savior,
plunders the house of B and the members of B’s family. Does sense or logic agree
to A being let off unpunished by any law, particularly the Law of the All Just
Lord of the Universe, simply because A accepts Jesus as his Savior?”
I had to say, ‘No’. Because, to say otherwise would mean I forfeit my common
sense and go against reasoning.
He continued:
“There is one very grave aspect of the doctrine of atonement through the blood
of Jesus i.e. when we pay for a thing, the thing becomes our own and the
previous owner of the thing forfeits all his claim over it for the price he has
already received. Is it not?”
I said, ‘Yes’.
Then he said “If the sins of man have been paid for, God has no right to punish
any sinner every sinner who merely believes in Jesus would be free to do
anything in the world which his brutal passion dictates him to do, for God his
Lord has no right whatsoever even to question any sinner, for Jesus has met the
cost of all his sins. Can this ever be sensible logic or common sense? Can this
doctrine help life on earth to continue for one moment in peace and security?”
He continued: “Please remember, Islam wants every individual to be kept bound by
his being answerable with his individual responsibility to virtue against vice,
in the interest of his own individual life as well as the interest of the
collective life in this world, himself as a member of not only the human race
but also of the creation of the Lord as a whole. Islam continuously invites and
encourages man towards righteousness with the promise of the blissful life in
the hereafter and repeatedly warns him against vice and the consequent
chastisement from the All-just Lord.
The Holy Quran repeatedly warns saying:
2:28 “And be on your guard against a day when one soul shall not avail another
in the least, neither shall intercession on its behalf be accepted nor shall
they be helped.”
17:15 “Whoever goes aright, for his own soul does he go aright; and whoever goes
astray, to its detriment only does he goes astray; nor can the bearer of a
burden bear the burden of another, nor do we chastise until we raise an
apostle.”
49:13 “O ye men! Surely we have created you of a male and female, and made you
tribes and families that you may know each other; surely the most honorable of
you with Allah is the one among you most careful (of his duty) surely Allah is
knowing, Aware.”
“While threatening man with grievous punishment in recompense for his evils, the
Holy Quran discloses also the infinite mercy of the All-Merciful Lord who does
not want man, however, much a sinner the individual be, to be totally dejected
or hopeless of the merciful pardon from Him. The only condition for the pardon
he needs, being the sinner’s repentance against his vices, with his intention of
amending his conduct in the future, and turning whole heartedly to obedience and
gratitude to the All-Merciful Lord for His Infinite Grace.
“For goodness sake, tell me, Mr. Joseph, which do you think is reasonable and
sensible, either making man intoxicated and careless against sinning, i.e.
making him unreasonably confident of the price of his sins as having already
been paid by someone or alerting with his commitment to virtue against vice,
i.e. keeping him warned of the natural consequence of getting punishment by the
All-Just Lord, against any misconduct or disobedience?”
I felt that I had that day understood the hollowness of the doctrine of
atonement upon which is built the whole edifice of the Christian faith. The
divine mercy of the Lord dawned upon my heart, a new light of the divine
guidance. I thanked God for liberating me from the clutches of the grossly
misleading dogmatic doctrine and leading me to Islam which I have myself found
through an impartial enquiry that it is the Right and the Straight Royal Road to
Salvation which the All-Merciful Lord Himself has shown man through this Last
Apostle Muhammad, may peace be on Him and his divinely chosen descendants.
When I disclosed my acceptance of the true arguments advanced by the Lecturer
and thanked him, he told me:
“Mr. Joseph! You must thank God for blessing you with the fulfillment of His
merciful promise to every sincere seeker of truth!”
The All-Merciful Lord by His infinite mercy has fulfilled His merciful promise
to give mankind the everlasting guidance through the Holy Prophet Muhammad who
would abide in his guidance for all times. (John, 16:14)
In Muhammad was fulfilled the divine promise for the Prophet, and the promise of
the Lord to raise Twelve Princes in the seed of Ishmael was fulfilled in God’s
raising the Twelve Holy Imams in the family of the Holy Prophet Muhammad who is
the divinely chosen issue of Ishmael.
Gen. 17:20 “And as for Ishmael I have heard thee, Behold, I have blessed him and
will make him fruitful, and I will multiply him exceedingly, Twelve Princes
shall he beget and I will make him a great nation.”
All these Holy Imams were of the purest character and of an undoubtedly godly
conduct and though they never received any education from any other mortal in
this world, all of them, like the Holy Prophet Muhammad, were the wonderful
stores and the Divinely caused fountainheads of knowledge to enlighten the world
with the true knowledge about the Lord of the Universe.
Eleven of these Twelve divinely commissioned Imams or Guides lived as the
perfect models of pure humanity in complete resignation to the Divine Will and
all of them were martyred. If any one wants to see a perfect model of a man
surrendering his all, most willingly suffering the worst and the most painful
affections in the way of the Lord severed, one must see the Holy Imam Hussain at
Karbala.
The world will find Hussain not shouting, “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani”
Or desiring in the least the removal of the cup of death, but drinking it
cheerfully, glorifying the Lord in his last thanks-giving prayers while he was
being butchered in the most heartless way.
As the promise of God to give mankind a Prophet to abide for ever has been
recorded in the Old Testament this Great Sacrifice has also been prophesied in,
Jeremiah 46:10 “For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts a day of vengeance,
that he may avenge him of his adversaries; and the sword shall devour, and it
shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood; for Lord God of Hosts hath a
sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.”
After coming across so many sane and unbreakable arguments against the doctrine
of the Holy Trinity and also about many other fundamentals of Christian belief,
I only wondered how such an unreasonable faith could attract such a huge number
of people in the world. Once I found my father returning home very happy and
immediately as he arrived he called me and said:
‘You will be glad to know my dear son that, today I got 109 souls into our fold.
At the baptism of such a big number in one day the Rev. Father, the Chief of Our
Mission praised my services very much and has increased my salary as well my
traveling allowance and has awarded me with a token reward of Rs. 109
corresponding to the number baptized through my efforts.’
I asked: “Who are they, father, who were baptized today?”
The reply was: “They are from five surrounding villages. There are men, women,
and children, 109 souls together.”
I asked: “Are they all educated?”
The reply was: “No. They are the poor people of the cherries (slums). They are
only laborers in the paddy fields of their villages.”
I asked if they had understood fully their undertaking as converts to the
Christian faith. Would every one of them stand any cross examination against
their decision to leave the folds they were in, and their joining the Christian
belief?
The reply was: “What do you mean? I told you they are all uneducated poor
illiterates; laborers from the slums. The group consists of men, women, and
children. Now, I will have to go there every day and coach them up in the
doctrine of our faith.”
On hearing this I smiled, and seeing me smiling my father asked: “Why do you
smile, Joseph? What is the matter?” I said: “Nothing father! I do not see in
this mass conversion, any matter of pride or pleasure which any true religion or
any genuine or reasonable faith can claim for itself, for it is nothing but
exploiting the illiteracy and ignorance of the poor laborers. It is leading the
mentally blind ones into something which they neither know nor recognize. Do you
think father that any sensible man can reasonably be proud over his getting some
illiterate men, women and children to accept his own ideals and justifiably
claim the least merit or value to his thoughts?”
“While the entry into a faith like Islam is effected only after a detailed study
and enquiry by the learned ones with perfect conviction, we Christians pride
over our success in swelling up our ranks by mass conversions of illiterate
laborers, who, by circumstances, are forced to accept the Christian doctrines
without knowing what they do is right or wrong? An ignorant mind is like a blank
sheet, one can draw upon it whatever one’s fancy chooses and once the
inscription is made to be settled upon such raw material, any artist can pride
over the plate having any particular design of his own. If today to win the
sympathy of the ignorant masses, we boast before our illiterate converts of our
humanity and self sacrifices in the cause of the spread of our faith, will the
outer world also forget the Edict of Milan, father, and will all the records of
the history of the brutal outrages that Christendom committed against the poor
helpless Jews, in its own passionate eagerness and anxiety to swell its ranks,
all together totally vanish?”
I continued: “If you kindly permit me father, I would like to know from you if
this Bible in your hands is to be merely read memorized and preached to the
others or is it to be acted upon in our daily life? If it is to be acted upon
will you kindly show me father, if the Christian world could ever practice the
principle of turning the other cheek also if one is already smitten? Could any
sincere Christian till now, give away his shirt when his coat was taken away?
Will you, father, surrender our whole house if any body invades our residence
and takes possession of any of the rooms in these premises? If the Christian
powers of the world really believe in this doctrine of self surrender, why do
they maintain their military and the police forces? Kindly tell me, father, if
there is any earthly use of merely believing in any golden ideals which can only
adorn the pages of some books and which can only be preached but never
practiced. Why should we not reasonably accept the doctrine of self-defense
taught by Islam and the principle of pardoning our offenders if they are
repentant?
For goodness sake let me know, father, how can three different ones at the same
time be an absolute one, both numerically and also in the essential nature of
perfect unity?
On what reasonable grounds can the one who is forsaken by God, be God Himself
and if Jesus is to be believed as the son of God what claim to the relationship
with his father can a forsaken son have?
“What right has Christendom to claim any truth in it when its spread was caused
by the inhuman atrocities committed by the Christian forces against the poor
helpless Jews? The conduct of the brutal outrages committed in the holy name of
Christ, has been fully reported even by the Christian authorities on Edict of
Milan and by the world renowned Christian Scholar Gibbon in his famous work,
‘The Decline and the Fall of the Roman Empire.”
The Doctrine of Atonement through the blood of Christ, will naturally attract
those sinner who have sinned and who do not want to give up sinning under the
protection of the doctrine that the price of their sins has already been paid
away and however much worst sinners they themselves choose to be, they will not
in the least be chastised for their heinous crimes, for, after Jesus having paid
away for the sins of man, God must have forfeited His claim to punish the
sinners thereafter.
There are many such things father which need a dispassionate study and an
impartial judgment.
“I tell you father, that whatever be the consequences and whatever misfortune
may afflict me, I as one, have decided not to sell away or forfeit my conscience
and common sense to the belief in such unreasonable dogmatic doctrines. I have
embraced Islam, and if you do not get angry with me and kindly allow me to
explain to you the details of my enquiries, I will do it whenever I am wanted to
do so I do not like any thought or belief of mine to be swallowed by anyone by
force, for the religion Islam, which I now openly declare to have embraced,
enjoins that there shall not be any compulsion in the matter of faith as the
truth has been revealed against falsehood.”
To my utter surprise I found my father fully attentive to my exposing my
personal views and convictions and at the end he said:
“Son! Do not think that your father is a fool I have been occasionally
confronted with such ideas during my life whenever I had the occasion of
discussing religion with my Muslim friends. But today the sincerity and the
boldness with which you expose your own convictions make me bold to decide about
the matter. I shall tell you later but, for God’s sake keep this matter strictly
confined to you. Otherwise be sure we will be thrown out into the street as
destitute.”
A few days later my father had a long talk and he decided to declare himself a
Muslim. The details of our sufferings and the social persecution we had to pass
through is a history by itself.
I, now, for the information and guidance of every seeker after Truth, openly
declare the actual findings of my sincere enquiry that Islam is not only the
last of the mighty religions which had revolutionized the world and changed the
destinies of nations, but it is also the perfect and all inclusive faith which
contains in itself all the good, found partly in all other religions which had
preceded it. One of the most distinguishing and striking characteristics of
Islam is that it requires of its followers to believe that all the religions of
the world that preceded it were revealed by God for the respective people of
those ages.
It is one of the fundamentals of this faith that its followers must believe in
all the Prophets who were sent into the world before the Holy Prophet ‘MUHAMMAD’
as truthful and sinless.
Muhammad is the name of the Holy Prophet through whom all this comprehensive
Faith was revealed in its complete or perfect form and meaning, for humanity as
a whole for all times. It is the West that named this Faith as Mohammadanism on
the fashion of Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism and
Hinduism. Otherwise the name of this religious order is already given in its
book the Holy Quran as ISLAM as quite opposed to the method of naming the order
after its founder, the founder of Islam himself is called a MUSLIM as any other
believer. As the various prophets preached this same Truth among different
nations at different times in different languages, every Apostle of God is
spoken of in the Holy Quran as a Muslim.
Thus I have found, beyond all doubts that Islam is the religion which humanity
needs for its progress in all spheres or aspects of its material as well as
Spiritual life, to earn Salvation in the end.
A Muslim has to believe in all the prophets as truthful and sinless and their
holy books as the true word of God, revealed for the people and for the age, and
also believes in Muhammad as the last of the apostles of God and his book i.e.
the holy Quran as the last of the revealed Word of God to abide forever.
In short, a Muslim embraces, through the holy Quran. Every beauty in every
religion, and turns his face from that which has been added to the religion of
God by man, and that is Islam.
With the truth sufficiently explained, will not every one of us love it? Or will
not every one of us embrace it?
This solemn declaration I make just to be helpful to those who sincerely desire
to know the Truth which they need for themselves to live the life in this world
to reach the blissful destination which is called salvation.
None can ever deny that there can never be any other way to please God than
completely surrendering ourselves to His will, an act which is called ISLAM.
Thus the promise of the Lord to Abraham’s seed was fulfilled in the Advent and
success of the Holy Prophet in establishing the Truth for all times:
New Testament Acts: 3: 22-25
“For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise
up unto you of your breathren, like unto me, him shall ye hearken-in all things
whatsoever he shall stay unto you.”
“And it shall come to pass, that every soul which will not near that Prophet
shall be destroyed from among the people.”
“Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as
have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.”
“Ye are the children of the Prophets, and of the Covenant which God made with
our fathers saying unto Abraham. And in thy seed shall all the kindred of the
earth be blessed.”
I once again make it openly known that this true and sincere declaration of some
facts is meant for not anyone who does not like to know anything against his
fixed belief, but for those free thinkers who are seriously busy in search of
the Truth and are ready to acknowledge it irrespective of the quarter or the
agency through which it manifests.
Let me conclude with my sincerest thanks and gratitude to the merciful Lord for
I have realized the fulfillment of His merciful promise to guide aright those
who sincerely seek the truth.
Ahmed Wetaka
P.O BOX 2488
Mbale- Uganda
Mobile +256 772 609736
Uganda Muslim Brothers and Sisters(UMBS) Marhaban مرحبا 