Since I was young I always loved discussing religion with others.I always wanted to know where the truth lay?

Question

Since I was young I always loved discussing religion with others. I always wanted to know where the truth lay. The more discussions I had the more I learned about Islam. More and more I found Islam to be a truly great religion.
In 1988 I went to the United States of America where a new world of religious information was available to me. I found Christianity. A religion that encompassed the greatest number of people around the world. I wanted to talk to other people about it. I wanted to learn more about this religion. That was when I met a Christian group that invited me to their home. They were a very kind group of people.

Their aim was to invite me and my friends into Christianity, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn more about this religion. At the dinner table they started talking to us about the Bible, and started to give us some idea about Christianity. The person who was talking had a Bible in his hand, so I asked if I could take a look at it.

I remember flipping through the Bible until I reached an objectionable point. I stopped with amazement! I couldn’t believe that the word of God could have such a problem. (I don’t recall the details of the problem.) I started discussing the point with one of the hosts. A few minutes into the discussion and he was cornered with no way of responding. His face turned red and he got very upset! Nevertheless, every time a Christian couldn’t respond to objections I raised after that, I would either be told that I would have to believe in Christianity, and thus be inspired first in order to understand it, or the version of the Bible I was using was not the proper one for discussion.

So I found out I would have to believe in Christianity before I could believe in it! This was a dilemma! Then I reflected on this situation and with more research on the Christian community, I found that there were hundreds of denominations holding different and quite opposite views from one another. The strange thing was that many members of most denominations were talked to or inspired by God. Yet these messages were contradictory. I couldn’t understand why God delivered a message to one denomination telling them that Jesus was His son and only His son, another that Jesus was Himself, and another that Jesus was neither. All these people swore wholeheartedly they were talked to by God.

I finally decided I should really look at the Bible closely and decide with the power of my own God given mind. I, therefore, started to listen to tapes and preachers, read the Bible, and discuss different topics from the Bible with Christian Fathers, Brothers, Preachers, and laymen.

As far as the other objection in relation to the version of the Bible, I couldn’t find a real solution to the problem. If I talked to someone using one version he told me to use another, and if I used the other I was told to use another, and so on. I even asked a Brother, my teacher of religion in a Christian university, if he would direct me to the most accurate version of the Bible. He said, "Do you want the most accurate historically or the most spiritually uplifting?" I responded, "If the most accurate historically is not the most uplifting then we have a problem!", and we both laughed. That’s when I decided to use the most common and widely accepted version of the Bible, the King James version. It dropped most of the objections raised with regards to the version.

Most Christians (and I admire this quality in them) are very emotionally involved with Christianity. They love their religion and are moved by some of its ideas. However, most Christians don’t know very much about their own religion. It is not because they lack any capability to learn, but they always depend on preachers to deliver the different concepts to them, never question the Bible, and look at Christianity from one angle only.

This was why I wrote these few pages. I wrote them not to provoke the feeling of anger but to heighten the sense of awareness in my Christian brothers. These few pages include the net experience of my discussions that which cannot be refuted. I have tested these ideas in many discussions, and I have even posted them on the Internet where I had to confront lots of people responding to the points I made. None was successful in refuting a single one of these points, and I hope they will make sense to you. I also hope that after reading these pages you will make real steps towards learning more about Islam, the final religion to humans handed down from God Almighty.

Answer 1

Interesting essay. :)

It seems somewhat similar to my experiences both being baptized, confirmed and highly involved in the Christian community, to stepping outside of it and looking in.

It is as you say it is. My experiences have been quite similar. I make no decision as to whether the problem lies within myself or within the religion. I continue to ask questions about the Bible and the Christian faith.

Peace!

Answer 2

Religion is an action of choice in what you want to believe into. Life is not writen in a plaque and all the rules are not always given how to live. Use your morals and your values that you have learned from the life experience. Christianity has gone through different modification to their bible, and the reason for this was to meet the needs for one group of people or person. As I remember, King James wanted a divorse from his first wife, so he started his own version or christianity where divorce was exceptional. Use common sense, and exctract the things that are good for you and good for others. The bible or any other religion is not to follow it point by point but to get an idea of how life should be lived in a more proper manner. After all, bible and all the other religions have been written by humans, and have been passed on from generation to generation. Anyone could have made correction/adjustments to the text.

Answer 3

Jesus as the son of G-d..hmmm....
Muhammad, To be honest, I also was nearly attracted to christianty because of its Love. However, since a letter called "Beni Meshiha' which was discovered in 2005 , I have changed my mind. Here is the extraction that I got from the book "the Jesus paper". It was written by a man who is a graduate form my university.
Here he is talking about some ancient texts that were found in an excavation in the Old City in Jerusalem. Here is the quote:


. "...In 1961 [a person being interviewed] found two papyrus documents bearing an Aramaic text, together with a number of objects that allowed him to date the finds at about A.D. 34. The Papyrus texts were two Aramaic letters written to the Jewish court, the Sanhedrin. The writer, my friend explained, called himself bani meshiha--the Messiah of the Children of Israel. I was stunned. Was I really hearing this? I listened intently to what my friend was saying. He continued to explain: This figure, the Messiah of the Childred of Israel, was defending himself against a charge made by the Sanhedrin--he had obviously been accused of calling himself 'son of God' and had been challenged to defend himself against this charge. In the first letter, the messiah explained that what he meant was not that he was 'God' but that the 'Spirit of God' was in him--not that he was physically the son of God, but rather that he was spirutally an adopted son of God. And he added that everyone who felt similarly filled with the 'spirit' was also a 'son of God.'"



So as you can see brother, accepting Jesus as the son of g-d literally means we have committed shirk. remember, jesus taught Tariqat and tasawuff to his disciples on how to reach G-d, he did not taught that he is G-d. We too Muhammad if we submit to oursleves to Allah with our whole heart, spirit and body, Insyallah we will be one with him just like Jesus was. But bro, it is not that simple. You must give up everything in this world as most wali Allah and our beloved prophets(PBUH) used to...

Do you remember the story "rabiatul Audawiyah", a muslim saint who used to be a belly dancer in baghdad ? from a belly dancer and a sinner, she saw "the a image of her husband" inside the alcohlic drink duirng that performance. That really impacted her life and she repent with full fear and submission. I remember she said to G-d, that "she doesn't want heaven, nor hell" but she wants "allah" alone. Even she calls Allah as her "lover". She is willing and hunger to be one with her lover and who is her lover ? Allah, g-d of the most high...

Even when she was imprisoned, she prayed to g-d until a light came forth between the bars of the prison. That really shocked the guards of the prison until they decided to release rabiatul Audawiyah. When she said she is a lover of allah and summon people to love allah with all their heart and soul, people don't believe her, people stoned her and guess what happen, the stone did not even hit her. See how merciful and loving Allah is to his wali (servant).

The problem with the bible is that the narration of the story has been coloured with christian theology. However Muhammad, if you read the message of jesus without any disturbance or intervention of preachers, insyallah you can see that most of his words are true. I really encouraged you to read the bible especially jesus's(PBUH) own word, not the word of peter, or the apostle telling the stories about him nor Paul.

I encouraged you to buy a "red lettered" bible where it higlights the word of jesus.

Jazakallahukahir brother....

P/S : bro, let's show the true love of a "muslim" to them without expecting anything from them. that is the love of Islam, the love of generosity and compassion.

You better have a good look Bro at "the Ummah clinic" in the united states in youtube.It is a free clinic that is set up to help the poor non-muslim community. Almost 80% of the visitos in the clinic were non-muslims. See how these muslims graduates alongside with their non-muslim colleague help the poor and the meek because of the feeling of compassion, kindness ,generousity love and humanity. They are following the prophet sunnah that is to be kind to the poor, needy and orphans

Answer 4

I will pray for you that Jesus Christ will open your eyes to see the truth. Read the Book of John if you are open minded.

Answer 5

are you trying to write a book? this post is way to long for anyone to read.

Answer 6

Very well written and said.. thank u
BTW do u have a website ?? if not u should have one !!

Answer 7

i agree with Huey..it ls with Jesus..

Answer 8

Too long again!
Didn't read it again!

Answer 9

try science