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These two debates were recorded earlier in 2015, but only one of them was video recorded. The video recorded debate was released earlier last month: Who was Jesus?
The second debate has just been uploaded (audio only, with photos instead of video): Islam or Christianity – Which is the One True Religion?
Br. Zakir did an excellent job for both debates, I’ll be posting a review soon on the first debate.
and Allah knows best.
Sam Shamoun’s “infinetly Better” Leprosy
Sam Shamoun’s hatred for Islam leads him to a leprosy stricken heart
Introduction
After reading one of Shamoun’s latest critique, we were convinced that Shamoun hasn’t got anything substantial to write against Islam and thus, in his desperation, he often comes up “articles” which are either outright humorous and/or ill-thought of. The latest one under question is his article where in he has biasedly compared the characters of Mohammad (peace be upon him) and Jesus (peace be upon him) around the ailment of leprosy.
Shamoun quoted a few hadith where the Prophet (peace be upon him) reportedly said, “one should run away from the leper as one runs away from a lion ” and “I seek refuge in Thee from leprosy ”. And since New Testament has recorded a handful of incidents where Jesus (peace be upon him) reportedly cured lepers, Shamoun concluded that, “Contrast this with Jesus Christ who, not only came into contact with lepers, but also inherently possessed the divine ability to miraculously and instantaneously heal them” and “Here is a case where Jesus actually touched a leper and healed them”.
It is not diffcult to realize where Shamoun is moving. He wants us to realize that where on one hand Prophet (peace be upon him) adviced his followers to run away from a leper, Jesus (peace be upon him) “Jesus actually touched a leper and healed them”! Thus somehow proving to Shamoun that “Jesus is infinitely Better And Greater than Muhammad”! But does this really prove anything that Jesus (peace be upon him) is any better or “greater” than Prophet (peace be upon him) just because he cured a few lepers here and there. We would be analyzing it in this article.
The Setup
To understand the words and deeds of both the prophets (peace be upon them) we need to understand the capacity in which both the Qur’an and New Testament present the subject proponents.
Unlike most of New Testament which is centered around the life and deeds of Jesus (peace be upon him), sometimes emphasizing, on other occassions extra-emphasizing and extra embellishing and on other occassions outright concocting words and deeds imputed to Jesus (peace be upon him), Qur’an is not a book about and around Mohammad (peace be upon him). And so you would not find Islamic text/s trumpeting miracles of Prophet (peace be upon him) as does New Testament; Qur’an is a book about The Ever-Living, not about a mortal nailed on cross!
Furthermore, since New Testament is a human handy work, Jesus (peace be upon him) authors had no restrictions at all to project him principally as a miracle working, first century, Palestinian! No wonder he roams around areas in Palestine and almost everywhere he is shown as performing miracles. Qur’an and its depiction of Mohammad (peace be upon him) is different: it does not show him to be a miracle working wizard! On the contrary, Qur’an states that Prophet (peace be upon him) was not even a guardian over his community, let alone any miracle worker!:
“Therefore do thou give admonition, for thou art one to admonish. Thou art not one to manage (men’s) affairs. But if any turn away and reject Allah,- Allah will punish him with a mighty Punishment, For to Us will be their return; Then it will be for Us to call them to account.” (Qur’an 88:20-26)
“…We made thee not one to watch over their doings, nor art thou set over them to dispose of their affairs.” (Qur’an 6:107)
“…I am not (set) over you to arrange your affairs.” (Quran 10:108)
These Qur’anic verses clearly set the tone that the Prophet (peace be upon him) need not perform leprosy cures to prove his bona fide or his “Better and Greater” status than anybody else for that matter.
Having said this, unlike Shamoun and other Islamophobes, we are absolutely at peace with the fact that Jesus (peace be upon him) healed lepers and other sufferers. Nevertheless, that does not imply that the Prophet (peace be upon him) never healed any ailment. Consider the following instances of the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) miraculous healings:
“I was beside Allah’s Prophet in the battle of Uhd…In the course of this, Qatada bin an-Nu’man [one of the Companions] was hit by an arror, and one of his eyeballs poked out. God’s Prophet, with his auspicious blessed hand, placed the eyeball back in its socket. The eye healed at once, as if nothing had happened to it, and became even better than the other one.
Reported in Bukhari (810-870) and Muslim (817-875), two authentic hadith compilations named after their compilers, it is stated that Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, had appointed his cousin, Ali ibn Abi Talib, as the flag-holder at the Battle of Khaybar; however, Ali had been suffering severely from a painful eye condition. The Prophet applied his healing saliva to his [Ali’s] eyes, and at that moment, the pain ceased and his eyesight became much better.” (Source)
Abdullah ibn Ateek broke his leg and Muhammad healed it by wiping his hand over it. Abdullah said it was as if nothing had happened to it! The person who witnessed the miracle was another companion, Bara’ ibn Azib (Saheeh Al-Bukhari) (Source)
Prophet (peace be upon him) and Leprosy
If Prophet (peace be upon him) did miraculously heal sufferers then what was the import of his statements with regards to leprosy as quoted by Shamoun! Here they are reproduced once again:
“one should run away from the leper as one runs away from a lion ”
“I seek refuge in Thee from leprosy ”
It is important to understand the context of the statments. We are talking about first century Islamic era when leprosy was still an incurable, contagious and deadly disease. And therefore, the first of Prophet’s (peace be upon him) statement is nothing more than a pragmatic expression for the act of quarantining the leper. When you know that medically there isn’t a solution available at the time to cure leprosy then you would but naturally and practically advice your near ones to shun interaction with the infected person especially when the ailment is contagious; in other words –, “run away from the leper”. And so we see that the stress of the prophetic statement is more on educating masses for quarantining leprosy for the sake of saving others than outcasting leper or expressing the inability or unwillingness to miraculously cure one! This is further elucidated when the subject prophetic narratives are read in conjunction with other similar Hadith narrations (which Shamoun would dare not do to in insincerity!):
“A healthy man should not be brought near a sick person” [Abu Dawud, Ahmad, Ibn majah, Ahmad and Al-Bayhaqi] (Source)
Now if Shamoun construes the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) basic, practical and medically acclaimed act of shunning/quarantining contagious diseases as him being “fallible human being since, like the rest, he had no authority to heal lepers.” then he is only exposing his desparation to somehow attack the personality of Prophet (peace be upon him) without taking into account the situation and sense in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) uttered those words.
And as far as Prophet (peace be upon him) seeking refuge in Allah (SWT) from leprosy is considered and Shamoun’s conclusion that “…Nor did he have the ability protect himself from contracting this infectious skin disease” then Shamoun is yet to understand that it in Islamic belief no inidivual, no matter who s/he is, does not possess any authority against anything/anybody except that which is granted by Allah(SWT). And thus, the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) seeking refuge in Allah (SWT) from leprosy further establishes the Islamic monotheism and a fact that in Islam only Allah (SWT) is worthy of worship and has authority over leprosy; not even the Prophet (peace be upon him).
Shamoun’s Problem
But we can understand why Shamoun faces hard time understanding these basic constructs; it is because he hails from the cultic background that narrates him all sorts of whimsical folk lores and mere legends wherein the handkerchiefs and togs of Paul and apparitions of Peter cure people, seemingly surpassing the feats accomplished by their master – Jesus (peace be upon him):
God was performing unusual miracles through Paul. Even handkerchiefs and aprons he had used were taken to the sick, and their diseases were driven away, and the evil spirits would go out of them. (Acts 19:11-12)
As a result of what the apostles were doing, sick people were carried out into the streets and placed on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he 3passed by. (Acts 5:15)
The fables of wonder-working bits of Paul and the legends of miraculous spooks of Peter obviously sets high and whimsical expectation in Shamoun and, consequently, whenever he would juxtapose these with the sincere admittance of the Prophet (peace be upon him) that he seeks refuge in Allah (SWT) from the dreaded ailment of Leprosy, Shamoun would always incorrectly and hastily come to conclusion that “More evidence that Jesus is infinitely Better And Greater than Muhammad”
End Notes:
All emphasize, wherever not matching with original, is ours.
Unless otherwise mentioned, all Qur’an text taken from Yusuf Ali translation.
Unless otherwise mentioned, all biblical text taken from Good News Translation.
A very enlightening video from the Darkness2Noor Youtube channel, featuring our esteemed Br. Mansur.
and God knows best.
A fantastic encyclopedic-like examination of Trinitarian “proof texts” in the Bible.
In a previous article we looked at ways in which the Bible disproves the Trinity. This article is going to cover the most common verses that Trinitarians use to support their belief of Jesus being divine. Each claim is followed by one or more refutations. Please note that this article will be continuously updated insha’Allah (God Willing) with new refutations as I come across them.
This is the methodology that I recommend to follow: Trinitarians tend to use unclear verses which can be interpreted in multiple ways in order to try and prove the divinity of Jesus. But as you will see from the list below, such verses often have multiple other plausible interpretations which do not necessitate the divinity of Jesus. Therefore in order to correctly understand the Bible, we need to rely on the clear parts of Scripture to explain any unclear parts of Scripture, otherwise people can play games with…
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Well this is embarrassing. Pastor Samuel Green who specializes in “ministering to Muslims” ran into quite an awkward argument recently with a fellow but prominent London based Christian missionary. The argument revolves around Green’s lack of education when it comes to Islam, which has upset and embarrassed fellow Christians as Green prides himself on his “engaging with Islam”. Someone had to burst his bubble and it was not pretty:
We’d like to thank the Christian community for finally bringing to light what we all know about Samuel – he doesn’t know anything about Islam.
and God knows best.
Br. Ijaz Ahmad and Reverend Steven Martins of E&AM Canada debate on the true path for salvation. In this debate, discussion focused on the errancy of the doctrine of salvation through faith and grace, the manipulating and editing of passages from the Hebrew Testament by Paul (his amanuenses or homonymous authors), the continuous message of Moses, Abraham, David, Solomon and Muhammad (peace be upon them all) that the law gives life, is not a burden and that sin can be forgiven without need for God to die. Click this link to watch the video!
A recent video by Vice news, purports to show Christian militants fighting each other over sectarian beliefs in Ukraine. Russian Orthodox militants versus that of Protestant militants. Very interesting that not a single Christian leader has come out to condemn these Christian militants who claim to kill in the name of Christ.
A Christian militant at 8:43 in the video says:
Reporter: What is this building?
Militant: This building used to be a Baptist sect.
Reporter: What happened to them?
Militant: I don’t know, when the war started they disappeared. I guess they left. There is only one faith, Orthodoxy. I am Orthodox. It was left to us by our ancestors and the Baptists are schismatics. It’s American propaganda. Which fills the head of our people, the Russians, the Slavs, which results in what you see now, the war.
Reporter: Will you allow them to return?
Militant: Personally I wouldn’t let them come back. Not the Baptists, not the Evangelists, not the Catholics, not the Greek Catholics. None of them. Because I took up arms so that we could have an Orthodox State.
The DPR’s Deputy PM said at 14:41 in the video:
The issue could be forced eviction, but it’s possible that the issue was that the Protestants for the most part do not support us.
At 15:00 in the video, the interview continued:
Reporter: How important is the Orthodox Church to the DPR and to you?
DPR Dept. PM: It’s very important. According to the ideology we are building, we would very much like to maximally integrate the Orthodox Church into areas that concern morals, in areas that concern family values, and so on. If the Church has more direct influence – Let’s say the state even makes the Church a part of the state in certain areas. Orthodoxy is one of the foundations of our statehood….
We have yet to see a single Christian leader condemn this violence in the name of the Christian faith. Baptists such as James White, or apologists such as David Wood, Sam Shamoun, Walid Shoebat, or even Islamophobes such as Pamela Geller or Robert Spencer. They all usually have a lot to say when Muslims are involved, but they are eerily silent when it comes to Christian on Christian terrorism and militancy.
and Allah knows best.
In comparing Christian literature and Islamic literature in regard to Satan, there appears to be a clear dichotomy as to how each faith treats Satan in relation to both God and man. As it would seem, Islam lessens the stature of Satan, demeans him whereas Christianity elevates him to quite a lofty status. To most, this wouldn’t be noticeable but when the Islamic view and the Christian view of Satan is considered, the outcome can be quite disturbing.
Satan in Islam
Who is Satan a rival to in Islam? As the Qur’an teaches, he is a rival to mankind, to humans not to God:
“O mankind! Eat of that which is lawful and good on the earth, and follow not the footsteps of Satan. Verily, he is to you an open enemy.” – 2:168.
Satan is subordinate to God. Who is the all powerful deity that is Lord over all Creation? Allah is. He has no rivals, He is Lord of everything in creation (الْعَالَمِينَ):
“All praise is to Allah, the Lord Of The Creation.” – 1:2.
Does sin restrict God’s mercy in Islam? No, God forgives all sins.
Say, “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.” – 39:53.
Satan in Christianity
Who is Satan a rival to in Christianity? As the Bible teaches, he is a rival to God:
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” – Matthew 4:1.
In this episode in the wilderness and on the mount, Satan has the ability to directly tempt Jesus, directly challenge him and the power to take Jesus wherever he wills:
“Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.” – Matthew 4:7-8.
Here we have Jesus who Christians claim to be God, telling Satan not to put him to test and what does Satan do? He puts Jesus or God, to test. Not only that, Satan then proceeds to take Jesus or God from one place to another thus demonstrating his power and will are on par with Jesus’/ God’s.
Is the God of Christianity, Lord of all Creation? It isn’t. The God of Christianity has a rival in the Lord of this world, who is Satan:
“(Satan) In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” – 2 Corinthians 4:4.
Does sin restrict God’s mercy in Christianity?
“but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” – Mark 3:29.
Conclusion
As one can see in Christianity, Satan is the rival to God. He rivals God on His Lordship (power, stature, ability) and the sin which Satan spreads (blasphemy) cannot be forgiven by God, He (God) is restricted by Satan’s spreading of sin. Whereas in Islam, Satan cannot rival God, he is a rival to mankind. Only God is the true Lord of all creation, nothing is equal in power, stature or ability to Him (God) and He can forgive all sins, regardless of whom Satan misguides. Satan is subordinate to Allah (God), whereas in Christianity this is not the case. Therefore, it stands to reason that Christianity elevates Satan to a pedestal whereas Islam declares him lowly in God’s sight, subordinate to God.
and Allah knows best.
We’re happy to announce that the first debate between myself and Rev. Steven has been published online. The topic, “What is the True Faith of Jesus’ Disciples?,” featured a lot of discussion on the early Christology of the proto-orthodox Christian tradition. There was also discussion on the New Testament manuscript tradition however the Reverend chose not to pursue that course of argument (I had with me several papyrological studies on hand but the debate did not follow that path). The claim that the disciples were eyewitnesses or the authors of the NT textual tradition was deeply discussed and the Reverend makes quite the statement during the debate, “it’s all hypothetical!,” which then led to some even more interesting remarks.
I focused on the chains of transmission as claimed by Church tradition, and examined them in light of the deutero-canonical traditions, the results would surprise many. I also compared and contrasted several “claims” by the early Church fathers as to from whom they took their testimony from about Christ, which led to quite a major contradiction given Papias’ witness. All in all, this was an extremely enjoyable debate and the audio is 100% clear. Again, I’d like to thank Br. Haseeb from IBN for the recording, Br. Asad (of Motorway Hall) and the MYTT for hosting the event, Br. Nazam for stitching the video together and then uploading to his channel, Pastor Kris for moderating the event and especially Rev. Steven for being my gracious interlocutor. The event was extremely well attended and I must thank the community for their participation.
Enjoy the recording!
and Allah knows best.
Question:
Does the Qur’an make an error when it says the Jews claimed to have killed the Messiah in Surah 4 Verse 157?
Answer:
No, it does not make an error. According to Matthew 27:22, the Jews chose to have Jesus killed:
“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”Pilate asked.They all answered, “Crucify him!”
Pontius Pilate then washes his hands of the decision and places the guilt upon the Jews which they wholeheartedly accepted in verses 23 – 25:
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”
When missionaries ask such a question, it only goes to demonstrate that they are wholly unfamiliar and unlearned with the Gospel narrative about Jesus’ alleged death.
and God knows best.
Calling Christians 
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