Mark 9:38-41 says: John said to him (Yeshua) “Rabbi, we saw a man expelling demons in your name, and because he wasn’t one of us, we told him to stop.” But Yeshua replied, “Don’t stop him, because no one who works a miracle in my name will afterwards be able to say anything bad about me. Whoever isn’t against us is for us. Indeed, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you come in the Name of Meshiakh – yes, I tell you, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
It’s long been a source of concern to me that Christians take such hard lines towards Muslims, being prejudiced by terrorists who falsely claim Islam, a religion whose name means “peaceful, total submission to G-D.” Muhammad was a murderer, they say, but wasn’t David also a murderer, and where would we be without his Psalms?
Moses and Joshua were given orders to drive out or kill those who would not honor the ONE True G-D, while Saul and David killed their “ten thousands.” Islam as a religion is nearly 1400 years old, and where were Christians 1400 years after the death of Christ, but slaughtering any non-Christians who refused to convert?
The Arabic Name of G-D, Allah, is simply another pronunciation of the G-D of AvRaham, the Hebrew word El-Ah. The “infidels” of Muhammad’s day were neither his cousins, the Jews, nor his “helper” brothers, the Christians, but pagans who refused to vow allegiance to Allah, including his Bedouin foster parents who nurtured him in infancy, his mother having sent him away from the sweltering crowds of Mecca for his health and safety.
If you dare to read the Qu’ran, the word “jihad” is found 6 times, being an Arabic word with the same meaning as Revelation’s Armageddon, the Last War between Good and Evil (in the Hebrew valley of Har Meggido). Since childhood Muhammad was included in the daily religious studies of men, becoming very knowledgeable in Judaism, and he also sought whatever was available concerning the newly developing Christianity.
Moses is named nearly 200 times in Qu’ran, David at least 25 times, and most of the Prophets of Tenakh (Old Testament) are discussed. There are no fewer than 30 verses with Miryam’s name (Mary in English), confirming the Immaculate Conception and explaining her worthy honors.
Yeshua’s name (Jesus in English, Y’isa or Isa in Arabic) is found 89 times, with accompanying verses of his exploits and teachings. As noted in another blog, Muhammad told how Yeshua spoke from the crib, and that as a child he molded a bird from clay, then breathed on it so that it flew away, a story possibly told in Jerusalem or among Egyptian Copts.
Muhammad had a problem with the term “Son of G-D” – Heaven forbid – likely due to myths of Gods copulating with Humans, but he accepted Yeshua as the “Second Man” in comparison to A’Dam as First Man, being the Promised Messiah of the Jews. Muhammad warned those who didn’t believe in Yeshua to beware of hellfire, calling him “Kalimet” or “Kalimetohu,” a Direct Path to Paradise, and “Ruhun Minhu,” a Spirit from G-D.
G-D’s Covenant with AvRaham is an everlasting bond with all his descendants, those of Semitic DNA, who “number as the stars in Heaven,” notably through Isa’ak and Ishma’el, each having 12 sons to fulfill G-D’s Destiny, all named in the Book of Genesis. AvRaham traveled every year to visit his son in Mecca, and together they built a place of Holy worship, setting up walls to form the Kabah, also burying Hagar there. On one trip south, a meteor flared in the sky before the caravan, and when they reached it, it had cooled enough to be carried down to Mecca, where they placed it in the Kabah.
Over 2000 years later, Muhammad was a merchant who often traveled to Jerusalem, importing dates, olives and other delicacies for market. At the age of 25, he married a 40 year old twice-married merchant wo-man, Khadijah, who became his best friend as well as his only wife until after her death 25 years later. Sharia Law doesn’t take into account their “equal” relationship, but was written into Qu’ran based upon the Book of Leviticus.
Construction engineers rebuilding the walls of the Kabah wanted to move Father AvRaham’s celestial gift (the meteor) into the center of the area, but no one could agree how it should be done. Muhammad, recently back from a trip to Jerusalem, was known to everyone as “The Honest” and “The Trustworthy,” and he was asked to help. He had representatives from each of the twelve tribes place the stone on a sturdy cloth, and together they carried it into the center of the Kabah, where it is encased and revered even today.
We’ve erected walls of misunderstanding between us, and even Muhammad judged Jews for rejecting their Messiah and Christians for making statues and paintings in violation of G-D’s Second Holy Commandment. Yet G-D, Creator of Life on Planet Earth and Soul Donor to Mankind, is the same – yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Muhammad wrote to the Children of the Book (Jews and Christians) when he said: Come, let’s gather together our sons and your sons, our wives and your wives, our people and your people, and together we will call down the Wrath of G-D upon all liars!
In the movie Malcolm X, Denzel Washington sang the first verses of Qu’ran to verify Malcolm X realizing the racial diversity in the Brotherhood of Man: Praise be to G-D, Master of all that is, the Merciful, Who forgives me, the King of Judgement Day. You, we worship, and for Your Help we pray. Lead us in the Right Way, the Way of those to whom You have been gracious, for whom You have not lost patience, and who go not astray.
If the Great Prophet Muhammad was not from G-D, he never would have written in Qu’ran: Praise be to G-D, Who has revealed The Book to H-S servant. Study the Gospels. Pray for truth. Whatever is correct and good will be upheld. His favorite expression, expressed throughout Qu’ran: May G-D’s Will be done! It’s not simply Muhammad, his stories and poetic writings in Qu’ran, but Judaism and Christianity that are the Roots of Islam.