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Misunderstanding
The Only Way To God Religion: What is religion? This question has puzzled theologians throughout
human history. But how did religion start in the first place? Why did it start?
In order to understand some of these issues, let us have a look at the etymology
of the word “religion” itself, and see that when and where this word was used
for the very first time in the human history. The word religion was used
for the very first time in the Latin language. The actual word used in Latin
was “religio”, which changed into religion when came into English. The roots of
the Arabic word “Mazhab” or “Deen” can also be traced back to “religio”. In the
Latin language, the word “religio” had three basic meanings; which are Faith,
Trust & Belief.
If you further analyse these
three words, faith, trust and belief; then you realize that there are actually
three different characteristics of any healthy and strong relationship. For
example in a husband-wife relationship, the wife believes her husband’s honesty
and integrity, the husband also trusts the faithfulness of his wife, and both
of them have faith in each other. This helps them sustain a healthy
relationship with each other. But just imagine if the husband doesn’t trust his
wife any more, and the wife also stops believing her husband, and neither of
them have any faith in each other any more. In this case the relationship will
obviously disintegrate or break very soon. Relationship: Since we are discussing
religion, and even if the etymological meaning of the word religion is
relationship; even then one may wonder about the significance of relationship
in religion. That is where we need guidance from the divine scriptures of the
world’s three main Abrahamic/Sematic cousin religions; Judaism, Christianity and
Islam. The Talmud, the Holy Bible and the Koran, all agree that God is the
creator of the universe and all its inhabitants, including humankind. The
relationship of the Creator with His creation is not denied in either of these
religions. When God created Adam & Eve, He had a relationship with them; and
according to the Holy Bible, God used to come and have fellowship with Adam &
Eve, walking & talking face to face with them. (Gen. 3:8)
Sin: Sin is the disobedience or
transgression of God’s law or commandments. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all
agree that Adam & Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. Sin has its consequences, and
the very first consequence of sin is the spiritual death or separation from God. Separation: When Adam & Eve sinned
in the Garden of Eden, then eventually their relationship with God was broken.
Though some Muslim scholars would like to believe that the relationship was
never broken in the first place. They would argue that Adam & Eve simply
apologized to God, and God just forgave them. Though they then find
difficulties in explaining that if God forgave Adam & Eve, then why, even
then, were they expelled from the Garden of Eden. They also find difficulties
in explaining the justification for wars, famine, diseases and all sorts of
other evil in the world today, which exist because of the separation of
humanity from God Almighty, as a result of their sin. Because when Adam &
Eve were in a perfect relationship with God, there were no illness, disease,
hunger or any of the evils mentioned above. In the presence of all these sin
related evils in the world, saying that God is in full communion with humanity,
is nothing but to insult God.
Moreover if we are already
in communion with God, and don’t need to be put right before God according to
Islam; then why bother about praying five times a day, fasting and keeping
other tenets of Islam to go to the Islamic paradise, and have that ultimate
relationship with God as a result of their good deeds. They won’t need to fast
or pray before God in the Paradise, they would rather enjoy themselves with the
fruits, wine and beautiful women according to the Koran (Sura 56:12-22). And if
Muslims are already in communion with God, then why pray and fast instead of
just eating, drinking and being merry here in this world as well. Obviously sin has broken our
relationship with God, and that is the only reason that all the major world
religions emphasize the need to do something about it. It is for the same reason
that the basic essence of the world’s major Abrahamic religions like Judaism,
Christianity and Islam is to re-instate or re-establish the same relationship
between humanity and God, which used to exist between Adam-Eve & God. God loves His creation, and
couldn’t abandon them in their sin. God also knew that the humanity couldn’t
establish a loving relationship with him on it’s own, no matter how much they
fast or pray. Simply fasting and praying couldn’t be a substitute for God’s
ultimate justice and righteousness, because justice requires the punishment of
the breaker of the law, and without punishment there is no justice. It is same
if someone in Britain breaks the British law, and if even after being found
guilty he/she is not punished; then obviously there is no justice. In the same
way without punishment of sin there could not be any justice on God’s part. Therefore God decided to
reveal His plan to His creation, showing how they could have a loving
relationship with Him. This plan was revealed to humankind through various
prophets throughout human history, how we can have a loving relationship with
Him. God promised through these prophets that what we couldn’t do through our
own human effort, God would do it by himself. All of these promises, and prophesies
about how exactly He would do it, are spread all over the pages of Old
Testament in the Holy Bible. One of the most beautiful aspects of the Holy
Bible being the word of God is that we discover all these Old Testament
promises and prophesies of God, being fulfilled in the New Testament. This
gives us the assurance, that the promises of God in the New Testament would
also be fulfilled in the same way. Therefore unless we fully submit ourselves
to the God’s plan, revealed to us through God’s chosen prophets; we can’t have
any loving relationship with God. In the eyes of God, it doesn’t matter that
how much prayer, fasting, charity or whatever hard work we do we can’t achieve
it by ourselves. What exactly is that plan?
What is the reason for following only God’s plan? Why is it that other plans
won’t or don’t work? In order to understand some of these questions, we need to
understand a bit more about the nature of God first. So let us have a closer
look at some of the characteristics or attributes of God. Justice: As we are all aware that
justice is always done through a law, Sharia (Arabic) or Kanoon (as in Urdu).
Every country in the world has her own law, and without law there is no concept
of justice. One doesn’t need a doctorate degree to understand that in the
absence of the law, the concept of justice will be totally non-existent. In the
Old Testament, we read about the God of justice (Deut. 32:4;cf. Isa. 45:21).
The word used in Hebrew for God's justice is Saddik. So, our Just God gave His
law through Moses to fulfil this aspect of His personality (Rom. 3:8; Heb.
2:2). Although God gave various commandments through various prophets, even
before Moses’ time; He revealed His law in a corporate & comprehensive way
only through the prophet Moses. Koran also proclaims the God to be “Adil”, or a
God of justice (Sura 21:47). So both Christians and Muslims agree about God
being “just”, and believe from the core of their hearts about this particular
attribute of the Almighty God. But what exactly does it mean by God being
“Adil” or a God of justice? How He is just? How exactly God will do His
justice??? The Muslims believe that God
gave another law or Sharia through prophet Mohammed too. Now unless we believe
that there is more than one God, it would be contrary to reason, to believe
that there can be more than one God given law. It would also be unthinkable to
assume that somehow God decided to change, amend or upgrade his own law that He
gave through Moses, and then sent a modified form of it through prophet
Mohammad. Because we are discussing here about God’s law; and not about
Pakistani law, which does have an amendment added every now and then. If the
God is one then His law is one too, which He gave through prophet Moses; and if
any other law comes, then it is debatable if it can possibly be from God. But
right now we won’t go into that debate, because in this chapter we are dealing
with the concept of salvation in Islam & Christianity, in relation to God’s
justice & righteousness. Therefore, for the argument sake, we would assume
that the Islamic belief of Mohammedan law or Shariat-e-Mohammadi is God’s law
for the Muslims. Now let us try to understand
God’s justice by having an analogy with the justice system in Britain, Saudi
Arabia or any other country in the world. For example, the British justice
system runs through the British law, whereas God’s justice system runs through
God’s law or Sharia. Now what happens if someone breaks the British law?
Obviously that person is called a criminal, and gets punished for his/her
crime. The same way when someone breaks the law of God, then both Muslim and
Christians believe that the person is called a sinner, and would be punished by
God. This is very simple, and it doesn’t take a genius to understand this phenomenon.
Therefore, either a criminal or a sinner, whosoever breaks ‘law’ would be
punished; because if the breaker of the law is not punished, there is no
justice. The eventual outcome of law
is to punish anyone who violates it, be it the British law, American law,
Pakistani law, Saudi law or the law of God. There is no law anywhere in the
world, which promises forgiveness to those who have broken, transgressed or
violated it. How would God punish sinners
or those who have violated His law? Simply by sending them to hell. Who would go to heaven then? There are two types of
people who would be able to go to heaven: Those who are innocent, and
have never sinned in the first place! Those who are sinners, but
would be able to somehow justify their innocence and righteousness before God
on the Day of Judgment! Let us discuss both of these categories one by one: 1. Who is Innocent, or Have
all Sinned? Who is a sinner? Almighty
God revealed through His prophets, that all the human beings are sinners or
“Gunehgar” (as in Urdu)? There is no one who could ever say that he/she is not
a sinner. The Holy Bible tell us that the wages of sin are death, and moreover
that all of us have sinned, and have fallen short of the glory of God. It is
also written, that whoever claims to be righteous is calling God a liar. (1John
1:10) It is written in the Bible, that all have sinned, and have fallen short
of the glory of God (Heb. 4:15; 1Peter 2:22) Jews, Christians and
Muslims, all would agree that all of us are sinners, maybe some of us sin more
than others. Even the greatest of the prophets have sinned, and couldn’t
establish their righteousness before God. (Sins of other prophets) In the
Koran, prophet Mohammad is called a sinner in Sura 4:106, 40:55, 47:19, 48:2
and 94:1-3, where Allah is asking him to seek forgiveness for his sins. Though
some Islamic theologians argue that a prophet is always innocent, and cannot
sin; therefore one who is a sinner cannot be a prophet in the first place. But
in the light of the Koranic references given above, how they can justify
Mohammad’s prophethood??? But we won’t go any deeper in that debate, because
again this is not our topic in this session. But it is interesting that
both the Holy Bible and the Koran testify to the righteousness of Jesus. Though
the Koran mentions about the sins of many prophets including Mohammad, who are
in need of God’s forgiveness for their sins, it doesn’t mention anything like
that about Jesus Christ. Therefore apart from Jesus Christ, no other human
being in history has ever been righteous or sinless in the eyes of God. Which
proves that apart from Jesus Christ no-one can be put in the first category of
people able to go to heaven, because apart from Jesus, no one can claim to be
sinless. 2. Which sinners would be
able to justify their innocence & righteousness before God & how? We showed above, that Jesus
Christ is the only person in the entire human history, who never sinned before
God and hence doesn’t need to justify His innocence or righteousness before God.
Therefore we won’t discuss Jesus in this second category of people, who need to
justify themselves before God. The rest of humanity,
including all of us, and the greatest of all the prophets, fall into this
second category. We all need to justify our righteousness to avoid God’s
justice, wrath and the hell fire. God has explained his way, how we could have
a loving relationship with him, and avoid judgment and the hell fire too. But
before we discuss that, we would like to see if it is really possible to go to
heaven without that plan that God revealed in the Holy Bible through his
prophets. In order to examine other options, we would start with the prophets;
because if even the prophets don’t have a hope without God’s plan, then we are
no one. In the Bible the prophets
like David and Solomon are found relying on God’s mercy. (2Sam 12:13) In the Koran, Sura 46:9
explains, that how Mohammad wasn’t sure about his own salvation, or the
salvation of his followers. In one of the Hadiths, a Bedouin says in front of
Mohammad, that I pray that Allah would do His justice. The Mohammad immediately
responds to him by saying that: “Don’t ask for justice, ask
for his mercy only-Because if Allah would do his justice, then even I would not
be spared”. I agree with Mohammad that if God does justice, then even he would not
be spared. But I don’t share his optimism that God Almighty would not do His
justice. But why was Mohammad so afraid of the justice of God? Simply because
he wasn’t sure about the forgiveness of his sins; and unless you have assurance
for forgiveness, you can’t have assurance for heaven. No one can give us that
assurance apart from Jesus Christ. But before looking into that, let us first
analyze the 3 major Islamic concepts of forgiveness, which would explain that
why Mohammad was so frightened of God’s justice. (1)
Through
submission. (2)
Through good and
bad deeds put in a scale.
(3) Whoever Allah
wants to forgive. 1) Through Submission: The word Islam means
‘submission’, and a Muslim is somebody who submits to God through believing in
‘Tawheed’ (the oneness of God), prayer, fasting for the month of Ramadan,
giving alms, and performing ‘Haj’. The Muslims practice of Haj is a pilgrimage
to their holy places in Saudi Arabia, including the Ka’bba (the black cubical
structure) in Mecca, they belief that the Ka’bba is an exact replica of
something in heaven. Let us analyze if one can
possibly be forgiven by God, through this criteria. We will analyze this
Islamic belief in three parts; past, present and the future. Let us first go to the past,
and look at the time of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden. If simply
submission could lead to God’s forgiveness, then why Adam & Eve were not
given that option by God, when they transgressed God’s commandment by eating
the forbidden fruit. God could have asked them to submit, and become good
Muslims; and their sins could have been forgiven so easily. The only thing that
they needed to do was to:
And in this way Adam &
Eve could have been forgiven by God, and not need to pay, or be punished for
their sin at all. But we see that God didn’t do this, but rather expelled them
from His holy presence. This is
because forgiveness of sins through submission was never God’s way in the first
place. The reason God didn’t do it was because of the justice aspect of God’s
character. Adam & Eve had violated God’s law, and unless they were punished
there would be no justice. Let us analyze forgiveness
through submission in the present contemporary world. Let us imagine that a
murderer is brought before the Judge in a British court, and is found guilty of
first-degree murder. The murderer says to the Judge, “Mr. Judge! I submit to
you, please let me go home now.” One doesn’t need a PhD to understand that what
will happen, even a five years old child can tell that how the Judge would
respond to that criminal who has broken the law. Because obviously the Judge
will say “You have no brains man! What has your submission got to do with your
crime?” (or words to that effect). Because if he let the criminal go home
without punishment, then he himself is breaking the law, which requires him to
do justice by punishing the criminals. Let us look now in the
future: if God didn’t adopt this criterion for forgiveness in the past, and no
judge in the world would adopt that in the present time either; then how we can
expect Almighty God, who is judge of all the judges, to do that in the future?
But it is amazing that the Muslims believe that on submission Almighty God,
being the perfect Judge, would say to us sinners, “You feel free to go to
heaven.” In this way God would be breaking his own law, or in other words God
would become a sinner. I am sure that according to both Islam & Christianity,
it would be considered a blasphemy even to think that God would do that. 2) Through Good and Bad
Deeds put in a scale: This idea is mentioned in
the Koran (Sura 101:6-9), whereby our good and bad deeds will be put in a
scale, and if the good deeds are heavier, we would go to heaven, if our bad
deeds are heavier, we would go to hell. Let us analyse this belief also in
three ways; past, present and the future. Let us again first of all go
back to the past, to the time of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden. God
created Adam & Eve, and after some time they sinned; but we don’t know the
time between their creation, and before they sinned. This time is not mentioned
in the Holy Bible, or the Koran; and could be anything between 100 days to 100
years, or maybe 100,000 years.
Now if Islamic idea of good
deeds is about obeying God, or at least about not disobeying Him; then Adam
& Eve were doing good deeds successfully during all that time, otherwise
God would have thrown them out of the Garden of Eden long before. This suggests
that they were doing nothing but a lot of good deeds until they picked and ate
that fruit. Now if the Koranic belief of Sura 101:6-9 is applied & tested
here, then God could have put Adam & Eve’s good deeds and bad deeds in a
scale.
Since their many good deeds
between the period of their creation and sin were obviously so much heavier,
compared to their one sin, an almost negligible bad deed; God might have said
to them, “Adam & Eve! Your good deeds are so much heavier as compared to
just one single bad deed, so I would forgive you and let you continue to live
in the Garden of Eden”. But we know that God obviously didn’t do it, and
they were not forgiven, but were rather shunted out of the Garden of Eden and
away from the presence of the God Almighty. Therefore, obviously it wasn’t
God’s way of forgiving sins in the past. Now let us further examine
this Islamic belief in our contemporary world, and see how much it helps and
guides humanity. Let us take a hypothetical example of a man in Saudi Arabia,
who never did any sin or any crime in his life. At the age of sixty, he kills
somebody else, is brought before the judge, and is found guilty of first-degree
murder. According to the Saudi law, the judge announces the death penalty, and
orders that the head of that person should be chopped off. This person says to
the judge, that his good deeds are so much heavier compared to his bad deed
that he should be forgiven & not be punished. What do my Muslim friends think that the judge would do
with this man? I believe that the person would definitely be punished, to
fulfil the requirements of Saudi law. We have examined how God
didn’t use this criterion for forgiveness in the past, and we have also
examined that it is not logical in the contemporary world either. Thus how we
can expect God to forgive us through this criterion, and at the same time to do
justice with this absurd idea of good and bad deeds. This seems more like a
mockery of the justice of God, and indeed of God Almighty Himself. Secondly if
this is such an ideal and divine method of justice, then why don’t Muslims
demand its implementation in all the 55 Muslim countries in the world? This
would mean that one could go out and do as many rapes, murders, thefts and
robberies as he/she liked, but that he/she shouldn’t be punished, as long as
his/her good deeds are greater then his/her bad deeds. But the reason, why
Muslims don’t demand that in their countries, is because they themselves
know fully well that it would be the most absurd form of justice imaginable. I
am amazed, that how Muslims realise the absurdity of this kind of justice
anywhere in this world, but are still ready believe that God would do that for
them. God is a God of holiness,
and wants complete holiness. For example, if there were a glass, full of fresh
milk; one drop of urine in it would make it undrinkable. The Islamic idea of
good deeds and bad deeds is similar to saying that even if there is 51% milk
and 49% urine; even then it is OK to drink it. This is not how God of the Holy
Bible works, and neither there is any such teaching in the Old Testament, nor
it is in the New Testament. Adam & Eve were shunted out of the presence of
God, because of just one small bad deed; and all their good deeds were not
considered even worth looking at. God Almighty teaches us in the Holy Bible
teaches that our good deeds are just like dirty rags. (Is 64:6) Moreover if our relationship
with God is based on our good & bad deeds, then what exactly is the nature
of such a relationship? It seems more like a master-slave relationship, because
when a slave pleases his master through obeying, he/she expects some reward,
but expects flogging when something gone wrong. The more you would
fast and say prayers; the more would be the chances for going to heaven. But
the question is, “Were Adam and Eve in this kind of master-slave
relationship with God in Garden of Eden?” The scriptures of Judaism,
Christianity & Islam don't support this idea. Then the question arises is “why
God would like to establish that kind of relationship with us now?” According to the Holy Bible,
the relationship that God wants to establish with us is that of a father and
child. That is why when Jesus taught us to pray to God, he asked us to call Him
‘Father’. It is interesting to note here, that only a child can inherit from
his/her father; and a slave never inherits from his/her master. Secondly a child
has the assurance of forgiveness from his/her parents, whereas slave is never
sure about forgiveness. This explains why Muslims are not sure of their
salvation, whereas Christians have that assurance, which comes only through
putting trust in Jesus Christ. 3) Whoever Allah wants to
forgive: After believing that God is
“Adil” or a God of justice, this belief of God’s forgiveness & justice is
even more absurd than the two previous ones we just discussed. Just imagine that in the
British courts, there is a Judge who forgives whoever he wants, no matter how
gross their crime might be; and punishes whoever he wants no matter how
innocent that person is. Who in the right sense of their mind would believe it
to be justice?? I am sure that it doesn’t take a genius to tell, that this kind
of justice is nothing but recipe for disaster and anarchy, if implemented in
any country in the world. I wonder if Muslims may want to appoint this kind of
judges in all the Islamic countries in the world. Though sometime it seems to
be the case, when Asif Zardari, the husband of former Pakistani Prime minister
Benazir Bhutto, is still in prison after five years, without found guity;
whereas Nawaz Sharif (another former prime minister of Pakistan) was released
by the supreme court judges to go abroad, though accused of much bigger crimes
compared to Asif Zardari. How anyone can testify and
believe God to be a God of justice, and in the same breath also tell us that
God would do such a crazy thing. Any deeper you go into this belief, and the
shallower it would appear to be to you. Though possibly it has got something to
do with one of the 99 attributes of God in the Koran, called ‘Asmad’, which
means the uncaring, unconcerned one (Sura 112:2). This contrasts with the God
of the Bible who is a very concerned God: about the welfare of the people who
obey and follow Him; and even those who don’t obey and follow Him. If God forgave Adam &
Eve, just by them apologizing; and would forgive Muslims without punishment, if
they just apologise, then what about the Devil? What if the Devil or
‘Shaitaan’ also sincerely repents and apologises to God for his disobedience,
then is God also going to send him to Jannah or paradise along with the other
Muslims? This would negate God’s righteousness. Mercy: Muslim theologians agree
that Mercy is part of God’s character, and God is many times referred to in the
Koran as ‘Rahim’, meaning merciful (Sura 1:1,2), it is one of the 99 names or
attributes of God in Islam. But since God is also called ‘Adil’ meaning ‘Just’
in the Koran, let us investigate and analyze that whether these two attributes
of God are compatible or contradictory to each other, according to the Islamic
theology. We have previously
established, that apart from Jesus Christ, every single person including
greatest of the prophets is a sinner. Therefore for transgressing God’s law,
every human being should be punished according to the requirements of God given
law. In this way, although God is doing His justice by punishing us according to
His law, He is not acting Mercifully towards us. How can God be merciful, if He
is sending us to a terrible place called hell? If God lets us go without
punishment, then He is merciful, but in then He is not doing His justice. So how come, according to Islamic
theology, God can be a God of justice & of mercy at the same time??? This is a
million dollar question, for which Muslim theologians have been trying to find
a logical answer for the last 1400 years, and I would like to wish them the
best for another 1400 years in future. But I would address this question from a
Christian perspective in the last chapter of this document. We all know that what
happens when people are caught for their crimes in Britain. They need an
advocate, because without an advocate there is no chance for them to be
released. The same way being a sinner, we need an advocate or a counselor, who
would intercede to God Almighty on our behalf for our redemption from the hell
fire. The Holy Bile tells us that this counselor is the Holy Spirit of God,
which is given as a gift for accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is written in the Holy
Bible that God is love, and it is interesting to see that ‘love’ is not one of
the 99 names of God mentioned in the Koran. The God of the Koran is not
‘father’ or ‘savior’ either, whereas in the Bible we find all these three
qualities of God. Muslims would like to argue about God’s mercy, and some argue
that it is the same as love. Let us examine the difference between love &
mercy through an example. Just imagine that some Serbian soldiers went in a
Bosnian village during the Bosnian conflict, and killed every single person in
the village. In a house at the end of the village, they came across an
80-year-old lady; who was handicapped, having no legs. They looked at her, and
out of mercy decided not to kill her. Now that is called mercy; but can we say
that they didn’t kill her because they loved her? Let me give another example,
to further explain my point. Just imagine that in the ancient days, a person
had two children and a slave. Whenever his children or slaves disobeyed him, or
did anything bad; he forgave them both, because he was good at heart. Now
obviously he forgave his children out of love, whereas he forgave the slave out
of mercy. But can we say that he forgave his children out of mercy, and forgave
the slave out of love? No. Moreover his children would have the assurance of
his forgiveness, because they know that their father loves them. But whereas
the slave might have a hope, but would never be able to have the same assurance
as the children. That is why Muslims have a hope of salvation, whereas
Christians have the assurance of salvation; and it is because of the two
distinctive relationships they have with the God almighty. Do All Ways Lead to
God? There is often a common
consensus on this question, among the liberal theologians of pluralist approach
within almost every religion. I neither classify myself as liberal, nor as
pluralist; but I would partly agree with them on this issue. Yes! All the ways
do lead to God. But another million-dollar question here is that “Do all the
ways lead to heaven as well”?
Because all those masses,
from every religion, destined for judgement under God’s law, are going to go
God first; who will then let them know about their doomed fate in hell. But it
doesn’t mean that everyone on a way to God is also necessarily on the way to
heaven too, so it is very important to keep that distinction between ‘way to
God’ and ‘way to heaven’. The
Only Way to God: The only way to God that
would also lead you to heaven goes via Jesus, and this way can only be adopted
by accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Let us examine from a
logical point of view, that how exactly this all works out.
Before we unfold this
mystery of God, let us first look at a few examples from everyday life. A
19-year-old guy was arrested for reckless driving in California, and was found
guilty of breaking the Californian law. After finding the boy guilty of his
crime, the judge fined him $100. But then the judge took off his robe, came
down to the boy, and wrote a cheque of $100 to be paid on behalf of that boy.
The reason for doing that was that the judge was actually the father of that
boy too. But since he was also the judge, he had to do justice; and couldn’t
let the boy go unpunished, just because he was his son. In the same way
Almighty God, being the perfect judge, has to do his justice, and can’t let
anyone undermine his justice and righteousness. But he loves us too; therefore
he decided to pay the penalty by offering his only son Jesus on the cross, so
that we could be saved from the punishment of hell fire. But he would do that
only to those who would accept and trust in Jesus as a atonement or ‘Deeyat’
(Arabic) for our transgression of God’s law. Only those who would accept Jesus
as their saviour, and put their trust in him will be saved from the punishment
of hell, and enjoy eternal communion with God. In 1998, two British nurses
were accused of killing an Australian nurse in Saudi Arabia, and this incident
became headline news in the international press. On being found guilty of their
crime, it was ordered that one of the nurses should be punished by chopping her
head off, according to the Islamic Sharia law of Saudi Arabia. But we are all
aware that her head wasn’t chopped off, because a lot of ransom or blood money
was raised in the UK, and was paid on behalf of those nurses. According to
Islamic law, there is a clause called Deeyat, which states that the person can
be spared punishment if an acceptable amount of money is paid on behalf of the
person killed. Therefore Jesus is our Deeyat, raised by God to free us from the
condemnation of the law. Both Muslims and Christians are like those British
nurses, condemned to death under the law. Those nurses were condemned to the
physical death, and we are condemned to the everlasting spiritual death under
the law, because of our sins. The difference is that Christians have accepted
Jesus as their deeyat, and are saved, just like those British nurses were saved
by accepting the money raised for them. Whereas Muslims are saying that they
don’t need Jesus as a ransom, and believe in continuing to submit to God’s law
or Sharia, are trying to work their own way out of their sins. It is same as
those British nurses saying that they don’t need Jesus, and they simply trust
the Saudi law or Sharia. If they had not paid the deeyat, saying instead, they
trusted in Saudia law, they would not have been alive today. The important thing to note
here is that though God hates sin, but he loves sinners. So he couldn't desert
His creation altogether. But the question was, how to reinstate that broken
relationship? Adam & Eve were innocent and knew no sin, because sin is the
violation of the law (or commandments) of God, which they never did until they
ate the forbidden fruit. In presenting Jesus to
Muslims, Christians may be asked this question. If Jesus was the answer for
humanity’s salvation, the why didn’t God send him earlier? According to the
Biblical genealogies, there is difference of about four thousand years or more,
between Adam and Jesus’ time. So God could have sent Jesus 10 years after
expelling Adam & Eve from the Garden of Eden, or maybe after 100 years, or
1000 years; so why did God leave humanity without her saviour for such a long
time? The answer to the above
question can be simplified through a parable from the everyday life. A
five-year-old boy gets some dirt on his face, while playing. Now if his father
grabs him by the collar, and drags him to the washroom, and forcibly washes his
face; the boy would probably never be thankful for that. He would probably cry,
and complain about why his face was washed; and may even argue that his face wasn’t
dirty in the first place. But wise parents might show a mirror to their son
first, and make him realize about his dirty face. Then he would probably
request his parent to help him wash his face, and would be thankful for them
doing that too. Since we are the children of
God, He did exactly the same as wise parents should always do; by showing us a
mirror, which is His law or Sharia. The law says; ‘Don’t steal, don’t murder,
don’t commit adultery’ etc.; when we end up doing these things, we realize that
we are dirty with our sins, and are set for God's judgment or punishment. A
mirror can show us our dirt, but it is incapable to wash it away; the same way
law or Sharia can make us realize, or prove that we are sinners, but it is
unable to wash our sins away. Therefore God sent the Lord Jesus Christ to be
crucified for those sins of ours, so that we might be washed with His blood. Then Mohammad comes with
another law, claiming it to be from God. Let us analyze if that fits into the
chronological order of what God is trying to do since the creation of Adam
& Eve. We have earlier seen that God gave His commandments through various
prophets; and revealed His law in a more corporate form through the prophet
Moses. The whole idea of sending this law, along with countless promises, was
to make humanity aware that they are dirty with their sins; and therefore need
a savior, which God is promising to send to be crucified for their salvation.
Then Jesus Christ is sent as the fulfillment of all those promises of God, and
gives His blood to wash us of our dirt of sins. Then if God is sending another
law through Mohammad, it would mean that God is sending another mirror, to make
us realize our sin. Why would God send another law to do that, when the law of
Moses has served that purpose already? And secondly the logical consequence of
the law through Moses was the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross. Therefore if
God is sending another law through Mohammad, then the question is: is he going
to send another Christ to be crucified? The answer to this question is no,
according to the Torah, the Holy Bible and the Koran. Therefore we are left
with no other logical conclusion: any law that comes after Jesus cannot be by
God at all, simply because it doesn’t fit into the chronological order of God’s
way of doing things. Then the question arises, that if the law sent through
Mohammad is not from God, then whom it is from?? I would leave it for both
Christian & Muslim theologians to decide: where does the law of Mohammad
come from? But here is another
questions, which is often raised, ‘if salvation comes only through Jesus,
then what about people before Jesus Christ’? In the Old Testament, we read
about the Chief Priest, who used to go behind the curtain into the most sacred
place in the Jewish temple once a year. He used to pray, fast and do all sorts
of good deeds, for the whole year; to prepare himself to face the presence of
the Lord. There he used to intercede for his people before God, taking the
blood of the animals for the forgiveness of their sins. There used to be some
bells hanging around his neck, which were used as a signal to those outside
that he was still alive. But if there was even the slightest element of
impurity in his life, he would die in the most holy place in the presence of
the Lord. But nobody was even then allowed to go in to bring his corpse out,
because of the presence of the Most Holy Almighty, any sinful creature would
have died. In case of death, he was dragged out with a rope that was tied to
his leg. This was symbolic that God hasn’t forsaken His creation altogether,
and still listened to them through their Chief Priest. Even so, the Chief
Priest’s uncertainty about his own purity was also symbolic that through our
own righteousness, we can never be sure about our salvation. But when the Lord
Jesus Christ gave His life on the cross, that curtain in the Jewish temple was
torn from top to bottom. The most holy place in the temple, where the chief
priest of the Jews couldn’t go by trusting his own righteousness, now anyone
could go by just putting their trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus through his death
on the cross has removed the curtain of sin, which had separated humanity from
God. Once we are washed with the blood of Jesus, by accepting Him as our
personal Savior, then we automatically come to join God in the same
relationship Adam and Eve enjoyed before the fall. There is always a need for
some commonality in a relationship between two individuals, groups or parties.
In the God‑human relationship, before the fall, that common thing was
sinlessness. To mend that broken relationship either we must become sinless and
righteous like God, as previously demonstrated this is impossible, or God must
mediate, becoming like us, which He did in Jesus Christ. Only though God’s
efforts can we again have a ‘deen’ (religion), like Adam and Eve had before
their sin. Through our own efforts we cannot have any relationship with God.
Judaism, Christianity and
Islam, all agree that Christ is going to come as the perfect judge, and judge
the whole world. So what he is going to judge the world for, and what exactly
He is going say to all of us on his return? He is probably going to say that:
‘I gave you my law, and made you realize that you are found guilty for
violating it thus you stand for punishment under & according to that law. I
gave my life on the cross for your sake, and my blood to cleanse you of all
that dirt and filth of sins. But you didn't accept that, so I am going to Judge
and punish you with hell fire.’ Some people would say to Jesus at that time,
that they believed in the law. But it is the same as if a criminal found guilty
of first-degree murder in a British court asks the judge for forgiveness,
because he/she believes in the British law. But just as believing in the
British law can't save a person from punishment if he/she has violated it, in
the same way believing in God's law or Sharia can't save anyone from punishment
if he/she has violated it. Therefore the only way to avoid the judgment and
punishment of God is in asking forgiveness in Jesus’ name. In the same way
one of those robbers, who were being crucified along with Jesus asked for
forgiveness, by saying “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our
deeds deserve-----Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke
23:41-42). If Jesus could say to that robber, "I tell you the truth,
today you will be with in paradise" (Luke 23:43), then He can
certainly say this to each & every one of us today; provided we sincerely
repent, and accept Him as our personal Savior. Apart from through the Lord
Jesus Christ, no other religion or ism in the world can give us this
assurance of salvation. May the God Almighty open up the hearts & minds of
all the lost souls, who are deceived into the slavery of whatever false
religion, ism or philosophy in this world! May God help everyone realize the
Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the salvation that comes through it, before
it is too late for too many! Amen. Bibliography
1.
The
Eerdsmans Bible Dictionary, Bruce M. Metzger, B. Eerdsmans Pub. Co. MI, U.S.A.,
1987. 2.
The
Harlins Dictionary of Religion, Jonathan Z. Smith, Harper Collins Pub. London,
1996. 3.
The
‘New International Version’ Study Bible, Hodder & Stoughton, London 1998
edition 4.
The
Koran (M.M. Pickthall translation) Islamic Book Service, New Dehli 5.
Ninety
Nine Names of Allah, M. I. Siddiqi, Kazi Publications, Lahore, 1993 edition Copyright of Markaz Tehqiq Al-Haq. Copies of this
essay can be requested from: MTH, Unit 313, 27 Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 2EW,
UK Tel: 07786-582 042 MTH@care4free.net ---A Few
Questions for the Muslim Apologists---
Copyright of Markaz Tehqiq Al-Haq. Copies of this
document can be requested from: MTH, Unit 313, 27 Colmore Row, Birmingham B3
2EW, UK Tel: 07786-582 042 MTH@care4free.net 
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