Adnan Rashid – The Mosque Where Jesus Became God Nicaea 325

			Salam aleikum, everyone I am at a masjid. You can see the minaret behind me there.
		

			This is a masjid in Turkey, in the city of Iznik. And you may be thinking, why am I making this
video about a masjid? In Turkey, there are so many machines in Turkey why this one? This one is a
very special place. This was a church once upon a time during the Roman period. And this is where
the council, the famous Council of Nicaea took place in the 325 seats. Now you can see behind me
this building is clearly very old. It is pre Ottomans, this was made before the Ottomans, we can see
the remains from the time of the Romans, these pillars, those
		

			faces off of pillars. And we're gonna go around very quickly to show you and talk about the Council
of Nicaea. At the same time, what was the Council of Nicaea, the Council of Nicaea was basically a
council held to discuss a very important theological point in Christian history. And that point was
the nature of Jesus Christ. Many Christian bishops came here, when Emperor Constantine was the Roman
emperor, he had taken this land he had already established his capital, in Constantinople, currently
Istanbul, and this was the spot Iznik, not very far from Istanbul, Constantinople, chosen to discuss
that very important theological point. And the point was, who is Jesus? Is he man? Is he a prophet
		

			of God? Or is he God? In flesh? Is he God incarnate? This was the points that was addressed by 318
bishops, under the leadership of Constantine who himself was a very newly converted Christian. Okay,
newly converted, that point is very much debated, you can see the walls of this church behind me.
		

			Now, it is a machine, okay. It remained a church for a very long time, okay, during the Roman
period, and then it was destroyed. The original church building was destroyed by an earthquake in
the 11th century, then Roman emperor, the Byzantine emperor, rebuilt the church. And then in 1331,
it was taken by the Ottomans by Sultan or Han, to be precise. And then there was a fire and inside
in the 16th century, and the building is pretty much in its original form. And you can see the base
is from the Roman period, big flocks. Okay. So what was the point of discussion, the point of
discussion was between these Christian bishops, the majority did not believe Jesus to be God. Like
		

			God, the Father on par with him equal to Him, the majority of the bishops, over 200 of them didn't
believe in that there was a minority led by Athanasius, the majority was led by a man called
Eusebius. And the minority was led by a man called athanassios, who actually believe that Jesus was
God in flesh, He was God, just like God the Father, he was basically part of the same being but a
separate person. So the current Trinitarian Christian belief goes as follows. There is one God.
		

			And this one god basically consists of three persons, there is one being of God, but this one being
of God consists of three persons God, the Father, the Creator, God, the Son, Jesus Christ, and God,
the Holy Spirit. Okay, God, the Father, and God, the Son, the relationship between them was
discussed here, right here in the 325. See, Constantine, forced the bishops to believe in the in the
current text of the Council of Nicaea, or the creed of Nicaea, rather, sorry, the Council of Nicaea
were the event. And the conclusion was the creed of Nicaea, the very famous credo Nicaea that states
that Jesus Christ is God with capital G God of true God of true God. Okay, on par equal, equal God
		

			the Father. So this is a very important place, historically, and symbolically, for the Christian
religion, for Christendom, or Christianity. This is one of the most important spots in the history,
because this is where Jesus was given the status of God incarnate God in flesh, God walking on
earth, God on par with God the Father, the second person of the Trinity, the status of the Holy
Spirit, if you keep walking with me, the status of the Holy Spirit was an
		

			actually quite determined. The the point of discussion in this council in 325. C was the status or
the nature of Jesus Christ. As for the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity wasn't quite,
the status wasn't quite decided that happened almost 50 years later in the year 381 C in the Council
of constant to Nepal. This is why the creed of Nicaea later on, it was developed, okay, in that
council in 381. And that particular creed, or the fully Trinitarian creed was formalized. And that
creed was called the Creed, the creed of Nicaea, Constantinople, the Gneisenau, Constantinople
content, sorry, Nicene Constantinopolitan creed, that's what it was called. And it was determined in
		

			the year 381. C, and that's when the doctrine of the Trinity as the Christians believe in it today,
all the Catholics, all the Protestants, all the Orthodox Christians, as they believe in it today,
was formalized in the year three at once, he nearly 400 years after Jesus Christ. Okay, so the
doctrine of the Trinity was a new development, it had a historical development to it. And you can
see the church here, this is pretty much the spot where the Council of Nicaea took place, we're
gonna go inside very quickly. And we're gonna go around while I'm talking. So the famous Council of
Nicaea, just remember that and Google it, you will find more detail on it. And I want you to
		

			remember that this place is SubhanAllah. You can say, you know, it's one of the most important
places in Christian history, which is today, a masjid, after the Ottomans took the city of Nicaea. A
lot of Christian students and Muslim interfaith experts, or comparative religion experts will read
about the Council of Nicaea, but they don't actually know where Nicaea is. Nicaea is today in Iznik,
in the city of the Turkish city of Islam, and this is the spot this is the church, it just called or
it was called Higher Sophia of Iznik or higher Sophia of Nicaea. And today it is a month so we're
gonna quickly go inside
		

			look at the wall
		

			if you keep following me Inshallah, I want everyone to see the walls as well.
		

			So you can see the minute behind me now it is a masjid clearly, but it was a church once upon a
time.
		

			You can't do renovations to these pillars,
		

			possibly from the Roman time these blocks the base is definitely from the Roman period, no doubt,
okay. And then later on, there was an earthquake in the, in the 11th century, as I mentioned
earlier, it was rebuilt in the 11th century by the Byzantines, okay, on the original foundations,
and then later on the Ottomans took place. So the Council of Nicaea is a very important event in
Christian history. And it was this council that laid the foundations for the Christian doctrine of
the Trinity, okay, which again, was developed further later on in the year 381. C, and after the 381
C II, Emperor Theodosius had
		

			who was a Trinitarian himself.
		

			Even though earlier emperors were not Trinitarians Emperor's like valance who died in the year 378
fighting the gods in
		

			Drona, Paul or Adriana police,
		

			which is currently derny in Turkey, which is where the Roman emperor of violence died fighting the
gods he was a Unitarian.
		

			And before him Constantine son Constantius was also a Unitarian. Now you can see these bases from
the Roman period. Okay. So pretty much a lot of this stuff is from the Roman period if you come
		

			you can see it is now a masjid, Masjid is Sophia a severe, the smaller Ayah Sophia of Islam
		

			Allah
		

			so this is now we can see what it looks like from inside. This was the church of is Opia where the
Council of Nicaea took place. Once upon a time the foundations are pretty much the same. You can see
these Roman block
		

			six blocks from the Roman period. Okay, the building on top, it may well be from the 11th century,
it could be earlier, I don't know the exact details as yet. Now it is a machine. As you can see, you
can see the signs of a fire, there was a fire in the 16th century during the Ottoman period which
destroyed a lot of the building structure. So if you follow it very quickly, you can see, there are
some older paintings of Jesus, allegedly Jesus from the Christian period, you can see it there. I
don't know if you can see the face. Okay. And if you follow me very quickly, so this is the very
place where the council the famous Council of Nicaea took place. Okay. Many scholars, many academics
		

			believe that this is the spot where 318 bishops would be sitting around Constantine himself was
present. And this is where the nature of Jesus Christ, whether he is God, incarnate God like God,
the Father on par with God, the Father of the same essence or not, okay. And the history of the
Council of Nicaea has been explained by many scholars in early Christian history. For example, J and
D. Kelly, in particular, has authored a book on the history of the Christian doctrines, the history
of the Christian doctrines by Jean de Kelly, he talks about the Council of Nicaea in quite some
detail, okay, now, this is one of the powers you can see the side okay, you can see the roof. Okay,
		

			there are some paintings from the Christian period you can see on the side here on the walls if you
come here very quickly.
		

			Okay, Onomichi Allah.
		

			Okay, this is where the altar is. Okay. You can see the blocks from the Roman period clearly the
base the foundation, this is where baptism would have taken place. Okay, this is the dome in the
beginning.
		

			pillars, pillars from the Roman period. Okay. So, I cannot explain the importance of this place for
Christendom. For Christians. I don't have the words because this is all important. This is where the
doctrine of the Trinity was born. Okay. Of course, we don't believe in it. We consider it blasphemy.
We considered it. Cofer Quran actually alludes to the doctrine of Trinity in chapter four so kanessa
Allah subhanaw taala says what a couple of salata do not say three. Allah talking to the Christians
directly in the Quran tells them do not say three okay Fanta who stop it, okay. It is not from Allah
and His messengers. Also Allah says in surah Alma ADA chapter five of the Quran, Allah will live in
		

			Chicago Rejuvelac caffarel Lavina Paulo, in Allah, in Allah have mercy. Oh no Mariam, those who say
that Jesus, the son of Mary is God or blasphemers their blaspheme. This is the spot where that
blasphemy came about, according to the Quran, okay. I mean, the Quran doesn't mention the spot. The
Quran doesn't mention the Council of Nicaea. But the Quran alludes to it. This is where that point
was discussed for the first time. on that scale. Many bishops many Christian scholars or clergy at
the time, we were Neoplatonic philosophers that did believe in this concept that Jesus is God.
Others did not the majority didn't quite feel comfortable with that concept. That's why you see me
		

			and his followers, the majority in that particular council didn't agree with it, but they were
forced to sign the council the conclusion or the creed of Nicaea they were forced by Emperor
Constantine and his powerful elite, right, but later on that particular creed was challenged by the
same bishops who were present in other councils and other councils. So the history is very
complicated is a lot of detail I cannot cover in the short video but I just wanted to quickly show
you where we are and how important this is. So you can see still pretty much a lot of Christian
symbolism in this place. If you look up you will see the ceiling and you will see some paintings on
		

			the wall I don't know if you can actually see some
		

			some faded signs of these paintings. They are faded clearly there was a lot of the devil there was a
fire here unfortunately, that destroyed a lot of this stuff, okay, that we cannot see clearly. But
this is a very important place moving backwards inshallah to Allah. Okay, so you can go back and
Sharla carefully, please don't go okay. So now it is a masjid as you can see 100 last in the Ottoman
period. And this was a very big symbolic victory over Christendom or Christianity as far as the
Ottomans are concerned. That's why they made a point of building a machine here. The Ottomans I
don't know if they were actually aware of the history of the Council of Nicaea. But this is the
		

			place is Nick
		

			is what the city is called today. But
		

			classically, this city is called Nicaea. The name Nicaea comes from the the fourth century BC when
listen Marcus one
		

			The * of Alexander the Great named the city after his deceased wife, her name was Nicaea.
Okay, and then this city became Nicaea. So there's a lot of history I can discuss. But I'll stop
there. My brothers sisters, this is a very special place for Muslims and Christians. Remember the
history of the Council of Nicaea and remember what happened here and how Allah subhanaw taala gave
this very special place to the Muslims and it is a masjid today. On that note, thank you so much As
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.