Ali Ataie – Is God Allah
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
greetings of peace.
My name is Sofia Ahmed, and it's my honor tonight on behalf of
zaytuna college, to welcome all of you to what we hope is an
enlightening and stimulating evening. I want to welcome all
those in the room here. But also, we have a lot of people watching
online from across the country and across the globe as far as I know.
So welcome to all of you. First things first, we will begin
tonight's program with a Quran recitation. And that will be done
first in Arabic and then reading followed by reading of the
translation in English. And that will be done by Abraham Najib. He
is a student at zaytuna College in his senior year. Abraham Knuckey
please
it will be law he means shining upon your Lagina GE game
Bismillah here Walkman you're he
now
has an ALA jabber Jabba Ali Nara ADA Hoon Kashi I'm Muto sloth the
mean harsh yet in
what he can
do now God evil Halleen Cena Allah whom yet
who Allahu La de la
ilaha illa who OReilly movie he wants shahada
man or he
who Allahu
ilaha illa who al Maliki Malecon dorso Salamone? Minalima Haman on
Aziz Zun jab BA. can be
super Han Allah here um, you Sherry goon
Suba Han Allah here I'm Matthew shriek goon
who Allahu Holly upon Barry soundware Hola. Hola. Smile.
own host
used to be hula hula mafi sama was the one
use that Beholder who mafi summer he won
one who idolizes on hockey team. Sada Allah Hoon and Alim was sada
rasuna Han nadie Yun, Karim. Juana Juana that he can beat Aisha he
Shahidi in our shack eating Allahumma Ohana earning RV.
Had we made this Quran descend upon a mountain
that would have seen it humbled, rent asunder by the fear of God.
These are the parables we set forth for mankind, that happily
they may reflect,
he has God other than whom there is no God,
nor of the unseen and the seen.
And he is the Compassionate, the Merciful.
He is God other than whom there is no God.
The sovereign, the holy, peace, the faithful, the protector, the
Mighty, the Compeller, the proud, Glory be to Him above the partners
they ascribe.
He has God, the Creator, the maker, the fashioner unto Him
belong the most beautiful names. Whatsoever is in the heavens and
earth glorifies Him. And here's the mighty the wise
Thank you brain.
Before we begin the program, I have one quick announcement, it's
more of a suggestion actually, for those of you who may have noticed,
we have a new bookstore across the hallway outside this hall. And
there's some great gift ideas in there and books. And I've been
told for the audience in the hall tonight, there's a special
discount on all the beautiful gift ideas there. So if you want to
check it out after the program, please do so.
This bookstore is a not just has great products and books, but also
helps lead to not college and generating income as well.
Tonight's program is going to be fairly simple, we will, I will in
a minute introduce our dean of faculty who will then introduce
our speaker
and topic for tonight, after which you will have a talk by Dr. Olea
thigh, after which there will be time for question and answers
inshallah. So they will we'll be taking some questions and
questions from this audience. And I will direct you to the
microphone that set up here. For those of you want to ask
questions. Keep in mind that you can ask questions later. And then
we'll also be taking questions from our online audience as well.
So they will do that after the talk. So let me introduce it's my
pleasure to introduce someone I work with a lot every day at
zaytuna College and that is our Dean of Faculty Dr. Mark Mark
Delp.
But to Doug's background is in ancient and medieval topics,
especially the metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas and new Platonism
and that he studied at our neighboring institution here, the
graduate theological union. Over the years he has taught scholastic
logic, medieval metaphysics and courses centered around figures
such as Plato and Aristotle and St. Augustine and St. Thomas
Aquinas. After a career teaching at the Dominican School of
Theology and Philosophy, which is also in the neighborhood here. He
has come to the tuna and has been teaching courses here and is now
the dean of faculty.
Dr. Delp also teaches courses in logic and philosophy at zaytuna.
So without further ado, please welcome Dr. Mark Delp.
At our first commencement, Sheikh Abdullah bin baya compared zaytuna
College to an olive tree.
He said, the zaytuna tree can grow in the shade, it can grow on the
sand, it can grow in extreme climates, and it can grow in
moderate climates.
It has qualities you don't find in other trees. My hope is that
zaytuna College is a place where all people can be shaded by its
intellectual tree, which is not limited to the east or the west,
the zaytuna tree bears a fruit. But from that fruit which is also
eaten, comes in oil. Even more wondrously is a source of light.
And we use that as a tuna, the olive branch as a universal sign
of peace, and quote,
This image has remained with me as the definitive symbol of zaytuna
College.
Now the English word symbol comes from the Greek symbol alone.
One of the meanings of which is agreement or covenant.
There is a harmony and a firm covenant, and the promise of
mutual cooperation even in the harshest of times, but only if it
is only if it is foundational in its very nature.
But it's a tuner. The scholarly cooperation between East and West
is built into the foundations of its curriculum, the trivium of
grammar, logic and rhetoric, each of which skills the student must
master in both classical Western and Islamic traditions.
beginning our cooperative venture there, we then study perennial
texts in which the central ideas of Islam and the classical West
begin to emerge, both on their own and in conversation with each
other.
Here the integrity of the covenant is challenged, as well as the
peace promised by the olive tree.
As a Catholic philosopher, I have seen while teaching here at
zaytuna College, many wondrous harmonies between Muslim and
Christian philosophy and theology, even at the deepest levels of
their respective doctrines, only to be dismayed upon discovering
that a conflict between two ideas can threaten the whole
can Aristotle's theory of high low morphism ever be reconciled with
Islamic occasional ism.
But in the face of seemingly incommensurable ideas, I found the
promise of the intellectual olive tree which in itself does not
signify a doctrine, but a bond of kinship.
Can there be such a bond between incommensurable ideas? Or indeed,
is it for the sake of incommensurable idea
Is that the bond has been established.
Each party must reach back to common principles and common
methods of thinking. And thus we retreat to the trivium and
rediscover the bonds we forged they're hoping to return to the
higher realms of thought to seek again the unity of ideas.
Well, under the zaytuna tree, however, we need never despair, of
achieving the covenant we seek,
and may even come to believe that after all, the greatest love is
between income measurables.
What we are attempting to do here at zaytuna College is both
hazardous and exhilarating. We have designed a curriculum that
holds us together and creative tension, keeping us close to the
vitality of thought itself.
There has been much talk lately of creative destruction. But
destruction, like unbridled criticism is actually quite easy
to accomplish. far harder to achieve is mindful reconstruction,
which in the areas of comparative theology demands careful work
indeed.
And his lecture for us this evening, Dr. Alia Thai has chosen
to address the central teachings of three religious traditions. And
as you will hear, he has done that careful work.
Dr. Olea Tai has been involved in interfaith activities for over 15
years. He has been a guest lecturer, and guest instructor at
several colleges and universities, including Cal Poly state, UC
Davis, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Cal State, East Bay, and others. He
studied various Islamic sciences with local San Francisco Bay Area
scholars. He is a graduate of the botter Arabic Language Institute
and how to remote Yemen and studied at the prestigious Dar Al
Mustafa, also in Hadramaut, under some of the most eminent scholars
in the world, he holds a master's degree in Biblical Studies from
the graduate theological Union at Berkeley, with emphasis upon the
New Testament. He is the first Muslim seminarian in the 147 year
history of the school to earn this degree.
He is certified in Arabic, Hebrew, and Biblical Greek, and is fluent
in Farsi. He is. He has recently obtained a PhD in Islamic biblical
hermeneutics at the GTU the graduate theological union, and is
a faculty member at zaytuna College, where he teaches Arabic,
Arabic grammar and texts, Introduction to Introduction to
excuse me, to the Quran, Quranic sciences and comparative theology.
His dissertation was entitled authenticating the Johanna and in
G Sunette, Poli moronic, interpretive methodological
approaches to the Gospel of John.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Olea. Ty.
Spent Rahim, Salah, lastly the Mohammed in one early he was a
comedian Marian. Thank you, Dr. Dope.
Thank you, brother, Ibrahim. Thank you. So if you're Tonight's topic
is going to jump right into it. I have a lot to say there's limited
time is God is the God of Abraham, is the God of the Bible. Is that
God, Allah?
And the answer is yes. Thank you very much.
I want to begin by looking at some linguistic nuances of Arabic and
Hebrew, Arabic and Hebrew are sister languages. They have a
common origin. They're part of a group of languages called the
Semitic languages, aloha to Sam yet, along with Ethiopic, and
Aramaic, Syriac, Akkadian, Ugaritic, and others. The word
Semite actually comes from the Hebrew word Shem. Shem was one of
the sons of Noah that survived the flood.
The grandson of Shem, was named Eva, which is where the word
Hebrew comes from, probably the prophet hood. Allah His tsunami is
buried in Hadramaut. That was the name of his grandson Also,
according to Genesis, chapter 10. So I either spoke what German
philologist refer to as older summit ish or some sort of proto
or primordial, Semitic language. The major characteristic between
these two languages is that they share primitive roots most of them
are try literal. In many cases, the Hebrew and Arabic cognates are
literally identical. So for example, the word nephesh in
Hebrew nephesh means soul or self, what's the word in Arabic
knifes, right
or in Hebrew, or an Hebrew rule Kadosh right rule Hello kudos, a
spirit of sanctification, a spirit of holiness, or the word set D.
Which means a righteous one a holy one Siddiq, or the Hebrew word
Psalm. What does that what does that in Arabic. So yes, fasting,
sometimes not so obvious and you have to look at what are what are
known as prominent letters. So that the Hebrew word ahava, right?
The prominent letters are the hay in the bait. So this is muhabba,
right Ha, and by means love for the word in Arabic for God with a
capital G is Allah.
Allah, the earliest attestation of Allah is an inscription at a place
called Cadet alpha in the first century of the Common Era. What's
interesting about the name Allah here is, and this is something
that we just talked about earlier, is four letters. Elif LAMINAM,
hey, or Ha, if you take off the initial Elif, you get Lilla. For
God, if you take off the first lamb, you get Lahu for him. And if
you take off the next letter, you get who him. I can't think of
another word in Arabic where this happens. What's also interesting
about Arabic and Hebrew is that all of the nouns in these
languages are gender fide. So sometimes the gender is obvious
what's known as natural gender. So like the word for boy in an Arabic
wallet, if you want to say this is a boy, then you'd have to use the,
the masculine singular demonstrative pronoun have that
Well, that's obvious. Or ze yell ID in Hebrew. What's really
interesting is that body parts in pairs in Arabic and Hebrew tend to
be feminine in the singular. So the word for hand and Hebrew yard,
if I want to say this is a hand I would use the feminine singular
demonstrative pronoun Zota yard heavy YED. Right. So every word is
assigned a Genesis, every word has a gender, sometimes it's natural.
Sometimes it's a lexical gender. So for example, the sun and the
moon, right? There are genderless. So the Arabs had to assign a
lexical gender, the moon happens to be masculine, the son happens
to be feminine. So we deal with Allah, the name of God. This word
is lexically, masculine, but Muslims do not believe that Allah
is male. God is not male nor female. Lisa committed he shaped
when the Quran says there's nothing like the likes of God. But
the Quran uses masculine pronouns like a Hua, he is because the word
itself is lexically masculine. Another thing interesting about
the name Allah is you can't say the name of God without your
tongue prostrating. Try it.
I saw it frustrated. Yes. You know, interesting also, as some
Muslim theologians, they actually have a quick definition of the
word Allah, simply for academic purposes. Obviously, there's no
adequate definition of God. At best what we say about God is a
distant, distant approximation, and at worst were totally wrong.
Aquinas said, even the praise of God is so remote remote from his
reality. Right? One of my teachers said that praising God requires
repentance, because you can never get to the reality of God. My
monitor he said, If you praise a king, who has 1000 gold pieces for
having 1000 silver pieces, then you're insulting and disparaging
the king,
but this is what they say. They say Allah is I'm gonna Allah that
a proper name denoting the essence YG boo Jude, the one who has
necessary existence, I didn't muster happily Jimmy or the
Camelot, the one who is deserving of every perfection, while materna
Z and Jimmy and NACA is and he is absolutely free of every type of
fault or deficiency.
So the question is, is the Muslim and the Christian God, the same? I
would say in principle, it's the same so Allah is not a foreign
god. Right? Allah is the God of Abraham.
If you look in the Christian Bible, if you open the first page
and go to keytab, tech queen, the book of Genesis, in sorry, the
Arabic Bible that was obviously done by that was translated by
Arab Christians, you'll find thi filled but a halacha Allah who are
somehow it was Ottawa.
In the beginning, Allah created the heavens and the earth. So just
a little bit here with with entomology,
The definite article in Hebrew is different than an Arabic. The
definite article in Hebrew looks like this. It's a high with a PATA
or Fatah and then a doggish forte, a doubling in the next letter. So
the word for king and a king in Hebrew was Mela. But if I want to
say the King, I would say hi Meles Meles the definite article in
Arabic is Allah.
So Alif Lam, right? And the word for a deity or a god in Arabic, is
Isla Han, which also begins with an Alif Lam the same letters. So
there's an opinion and this is something that Muslim philologist
also mentioned, is that the word Allah
is simply a combination
of Al Isla who
al Isla, who and over time this guttural Hamza in the middle it
elided. And we have the word Allah
ZBD and his wonderful lexicon attached without us. He says that
this is unlikely, because in Arabic, we can say Ya Allah.
Yah is a vocative particle. So this translates to Oh God. And
there's a rule in Arabic that the vocative particle cannot
immediately precede the definite article. So if these two letters
have a definite article, then it'd be improper Arabic to say Ya
Allah, you'd have to say something. Yeah, you Hala or
something like that. So, Edward lane, he says that the most
correct opinion that says that's a direct quote from him, is that
most are most likely. The initial Alif Lam, on the word Allah is
related to the LF ulimate. In this Hebrew word, ale,
which is the generic word for God. In Hebrew. This word ale is
attested in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, but more often than not,
it's found in the plural form, which looks like this.
Which is pronounced Elohim actually have a Hebrew translation
of the Quran in my office, I didn't bring it. But the first
page says be shame Elohim Bismillah in the name of God,
right. So Elohim is a plural this here. This suffix makes it plural.
This is a hearing with a Yoda and a meme. This is like the
equivalent of the gem aroma Veca Salem in Arabic the sound
masculine plural. However, this is not a plural of numbers, at least
not when we're referring to the God of Abraham.
Scholars believe that this is called a plurality magis status,
or a royal plural, Gemma and Maliki. So if we quote again
Genesis one one we will read in Hebrew but a sheath of Bara
Elohim, at Hashem I am the edits. In the beginning God plural
respected, plural, Royal plural, created the heavens and the earth.
Now in certain pistol theme, that is to say verses of the Tanakh
that stress the uniqueness of God. Ale the singular is used. For
example, in Hosea 11, nine, we read key I know he al Veilleux
ish. Indeed, I am a God, and not a man. This has translated in the
Septuagint, the LX ex theosophical, me chi uHq and throw
a pass.
And according to gesenius,
you know, you have this other form.
That's attested in the Hebrew Bible. This is a low
and a low according to gesenius is the emphatic form of ale, the
emphatic form. So quite often in the Hebrew Bible, you'll find a
low in the Hebrew when God is juxtaposed to false gods. For
example, Deuteronomy 3217 It says about the Canaanites Yes. bahala
che Diem, low elo. They sacrifice to che Diem Shayol teens to
demons, and not to ello not to God and phatic Elohim Lo, yah, room to
Gods. Now it's a real plural to gods that they don't even know.
Right?
Now the lingua franca of the ancient Near East in the sixth
century, before the Common Era, the language of the Persian
Empire, I had to throw on the word Persian. My students know what I'm
talking about,
was a language called Aramaic. Right? So major portions of the
book of Daniel and Ezra are in Aramaic with Hebrew characters and
Aramaic we find
Word God.
Maybe I should use it.
There we go.
We find the word God attested in the Aramaic as this
which is pronounced Hola. Hola soy a comments Hey, aspiration, Allah.
For example we read in Daniel 228 Brahm, e Thai Allah be Shi Mejia.
There is God in heaven. Ezra five one be soon Allah, Israel in the
name of the God of Israel.
And Hebrew we also have these Theo forrec names TheFork names or
names that have the word ale embedded within them, usually as a
prefix or a suffix. We know these names Godfrey ALA, right? What's
Gabrielle?
Gabrielle right the power of God mi ka Al. Mi Ka L very
interesting. This is a rhetorical question than a Michael is a
rhetorical question. Man ka Allah who is like God, who is like God,
mica Ale, Ishmael. Right. You shmatte is an imperfect tense
about it. Yes, Mahala? Yes, Matt Allah, God will hear
Eliyahu
Eliyahu is Elijah le My God is yah hoo. This is one of the names of
God in the Hebrew Bible. Also, in rabbinical literature. Yah hoo.
Sometimes just who, sometimes just ya, hallelujah. Right. This is the
PL or form to imperative. Praise God with intensity. Praise a yah
with with intensity. Anytime you see that Ale, right L Ron Hubbard.
Now I'm just kidding. I'm sorry. I had to throw it in. I'm sorry. I
use that joke every time. I don't mean any.
Anyway, Rabbi Louis Jacobs. He says here, this Ale, this root ale
is found in the generic name of God among all Semitic peoples. We
know from ooga Riddick literature, that ale was the name of one of
the Canaanite gods, so all Semites they call God ale or variation of
it. So could it be that the Muslims refer to Allah from Ale,
but are actually worshipping another god? Okay, many anti
Muslim polemicists, they perpetuate this claim that Muslims
worship something called scene or the Babylonian moon god. Right?
It's interesting. There was a Christian preacher in the second
century named Marcion, who died 160, the Common Era, very
interesting character. He was a gnostic, he was a dosa test. He
said that, that the Jews worship and inferior God, a deceiver God,
and that we Christians worship a better Gods who's a bi theist?
Jews worship another God. Right. And he's quite popular in Rome.
Marcion was vehemently opposed by proto Orthodox Church Fathers.
Why? Because it was important for the church fathers to tell people
that this is not another God. Right? This is the God of Israel.
This is the God of Abraham. Yes, we have different concepts of God,
we theologizing differently about this God, but it's the same God.
Now, when I first heard this claim, when I was an
undergraduate, like three or four years ago, I don't know something
like that.
I thought it was ridiculous. And I still think it's ridiculous. But
here's the thing. I go to a lot of churches. And I'll tell you almost
every single time this comes up, do you worship the moon god?
Sometimes it's very subtle. Why do you have a lunar calendar?
What does the star and the moon on the flag of Pakistan mean? Right?
Probably the most well known of these anti Muslim polemicist
that's perpetuating this false narrative. It's a man named Walid
Shabbat, I don't know if you've heard of him, but he watched his
videos, you know, hundreds of 1000s of hits, views on his
videos. Right. And, you know, he described himself as a former
terrorist, who became a born again, Christian.
But just to give you an idea of one of the things that he is
saying, in front of his many, many large audiences, so according to,
and I show this to my students during the week, according to what
each Shabbat
you know, he said, he said he looked at the Codex Vaticanus.
Right. Once you throw that term out there, you're like, Whoa, that
accounts and here's the thing about what Shabbat he speaks
Arabic. So he'll say for example, you know, La ilaha illallah,
Muhammad Rasool Allah and then the Christian audiences. He's
obviously a scholar, every Tom dick and Abdul knows how to say La
ilaha illAllah. Muhammad Rasul Allah. Right. Well, he knows what
he's talking about. So at the end of the day, it's an appeal to
unqualified authority. But here's what he says. He says, I looked at
the Codex data Canis revelation 1318 gives the number of
The beast is represented by these three Greek letters, according to
Gematria, this is 600. This is 60. And this is six equals 666. Right?
This is what he says.
Now, I looked at the Codex Vaticanus. There is no book of
Revelation in the Codex Vaticanus. That's number one. So I'm thinking
maybe he's thinking about the Codex Sinaiticus, another great
fourth century onshore manuscript and Alexandrian Text type. The
Codex Sinaiticus actually spells out 666 hexa, cassioli hexa
contacts doesn't have these letters. So I don't really know
what he's referring to here. Maybe the Textus Receptus, whatever it
is, but here's what he says this is what He literally says. And he
gets gasps from the audience. So he says here we have the x if you
take these two and turn them over
you get this and this says Bismillah.
Bismillah is the mark of the beasts. Now, you know, you have to
put a dot here. This doesn't work. This can't be attached. That's not
a hey, what you know, okay. And then he said here here you have
two swords.
This is what he says. To pack audiences 1 million hits. Right
that's like me going you know, here. You know, Santa.
I move this right here. I move that right there. Satan
or, you know, like this www. You know, when you put in a website, I
don't know much about computers. I'm kind of a techno peasant. But
www right. Oh, well, W is is the letter vav or wow, I say vav in
Hebrew, and you know what I'm saying? I live bait Gimel Dalet.
Hey, Vav 123456666.
Okay, I think I've made my point with so here's the thing.
What these people do is they take you know, a true historical
narrative, and they sprinkle some deception. So there is something
called the chronicle of Naboo Unitas
Naboo. Notice nebo notice was the last king of Babylon. Right while
the Shabbat says he was the son of Nebuchadnezzar. No, the son of
Nebuchadnezzar as was was named Imelda Mar Duke. This is the last
king of, of Babylon. So the Chronicle says a noble knight is
he came to northern Arabia. Right? He came to a place called tame Ma,
which looks like this.
In Hebrew tamer, and being in tamer, it gave him access to
southern cities. And the Chronicle mentions a city called er three
boo.
He acted evil, right yesterday, Boo Yathrib. This is probably yes,
rib is the pre Islamic name of the city of Medina, the city of the
Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam.
So as the narrative goes from the polemicists that Naboo Unitas he
tried to convert the Arabs to worship Marduk and it didn't work.
So then he tried sin. Si n, the Babylonian moon god, and
apparently this caught like wildfire. This is the narrative
1000 years before the birth of the Prophet in Medina, the last
Babylonian king went to tamer and can convert it or convince some of
the Arabs there, that to worship sin, the Babylonian Moon God,
therefore, every Muslim in the world worships the Babylonian moon
god. So is a terrible non sequitur argument. First of all, there's
there's no atom illogical correspondence correspondences
between sin and the name Allah. But then again, the argument is,
well, maybe the error was recalling sin Allah.
Here's another thing about the polemicist is they don't tell you
the whole story. It's half the story. If you asked me. All right.
Tell me about Paul. And I say, Well, Paul was a Benjamin I'd
Pharisee who used to persecute Christians. And you say, That's
it. Yeah. That's deceptive. Tell me about Judas Iscariot. He was a
disciple of Jesus. What else? No. Don't worry about it. You know,
like the Arab say, you know, la takanobu. Salah. Don't pray? Well,
untrim secara right. Gotta keep reading. Don't pray while you're
intoxicated.
So, in 1947, the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered. And there was an
interesting parchment discovered, written in Aramaic. It's
catalogued as for q 242. It was found in Qumran cave number four.
It's called the prayer of Naboo Unitas
Hmm. So this is something that the Essenes the Jewish community had
Qumran on the shores of the Dead.
See something that they revered is almost scripture. And it's very
short but we have Naboo Knight is speaking in the first person.
Here's what he says. I was afflicted with an ulcer for seven
years, and an exorcist pardon my sins. He was a Jewish sage from
among the children of exile of Judah. So the southern kingdom so
according to Western historians, the first massive wave of Jews
coming into Arabia came after the collapse of Judah, the southern
kingdom. 586. Before the Common Era during the Babylonian
invasion, Jeremiah went into Egypt, many Arab many Jews, they
came and poured down into the Arabian Peninsula. That's why you
have all these Jewish communities and Haber and take him out and
yesterday
Naboo Unitas continues, and he said to me, this Jewish sage he
said to me, recount this in writing to glorify and exalt the
name of the Most High God. And so I wrote this, I was afflicted with
an ulcer in tema, by decree of the Most High God. For seven years I
prayed to the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and
stone and clay because I had believed that they were gods. So
who is this most high God that never Unitas came to embrace?
Well, in the parchment and Aramaic, this is what he's called.
Allah Ha,
aloha.
Ally,
Aloha ally, Allahu Allah.
And definitely with aloha, and Allah. There are etymological
correspondences. But what's more important here is that this is not
the moon god. This is the God of Abraham. This is the God of the
Jews. You see, the Arabs at the time of the Prophet Mohammed
continued to revere Allah as the Most High God, but there was a
falling away and they adopted lesser deities, they've practiced
a form of polytheism called Henault theism, where there's one
supreme god but lesser deities. The there was also a group of, of
Arabs in Mecca during the time of the prophets birth, who were
called Allahu NEFA. Allahu NEFA. These were people who rejected all
Gods except Allah. Why? Because this they claimed was the legacy
of their forefather Abraham and Ishmael and the Prophet was
amongst them before he was commissioned as a prophet, the
Arabs before Islam, they knew their history they knew the Kaaba,
for example, the cube or House in Mecca was built by Abraham and
Ishmael.
So Islam is in a sense a reinstating of the primordial
tradition, or faith of Abraham, and a cursory glance at verses in
the Quran Kula sadhaka Allah for Tibi, Urmila to Ibrahima Hanifa
What am I can I mean I'm sure he can say follow the religion of
Abraham, the true and faith the archetypal monotheistic he did not
associate a partner's with God. So Allah was understood as the most
high God even before Islam amongst the Arabs. So what the polemicist
will say is look,
Islam was not invented by the by Muhammad, you know the prophets
father's name was Abdullah.
Right, so this was a pagan god before Islam now you see how
they've deceived us. The Arabs knew of Allah as the Most High
God, but they had gone to worshipping other gods as well. So
what the Prophet Muhammad as Muslims understand, the Abrahamic
tradition of monotheism was re instituted amongst them. If you
look at the Quran, 4137 and from his signs are the day and the
night, the sun and the moon lattice, Julie Shamcey wala lil
Kamara. Do not prostrate yourself to the sun nor to the moon was jus
Lilla. But prostrate yourself to Allah, the One who created them.
So the rejoinder of the polemicists is yeah, the Quran is
against the worship of the moon, but commands the worship of the
moon god. But if you read the Quran, just a second verse of the
Quran Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen. Please Praise be to Allah
Rabbul aalameen The Lord of the universe and interestingly, this
is a title that the rabbi's use for God in their writings, Bono
shell Olam, Bono shell Olam, Rabbul aalameen, the God of the
universe. So yes, Allah is the God of the moon. He's the god of the
sun. He's the God of the heavens and the earth. He's the God of
humanity. If you read the Quran, what does Allah say in the Quran
about himself?
I'll spare you the Arabic because I don't want to take so much time
here. I'm running short on time.
God
There is no god but He, He sent down to you oh Mohamed the
revelation in truth confirming what was before it, once Allah
Torah to what injeel. And he sent down or revealed the Torah and the
Gospel. So the cloud of the god of the Quran is the God according to
the Quran, who gave or sent down or revealed the Torah and the
Gospel.
Elsewhere in the Quran, say, oh Mohammed, we believe in Allah in
God and what was revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham,
Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes, and what Moses and Jesus
were given, and the prophets from their Lord, we don't make
distinctions between them, and we bow down to God, elsewhere in the
Quran. And remember, when the angel said, Oh, Mary, God gives
you glad tidings of a word from him whose name shall be Christ
Jesus, the son of Mary held an honor in this world, and in the
afterlife, and amongst those nearest to God, according to the
Quran, the god of the Quran is the God who sent the angel to marry to
give her glad tidings of the birth of Christ.
If you read 280 to 189 of the Quran, Surah Baqarah surah number
two, verse 189. Yes, Allah I need a hint Allah. They ask you about
the new moons. Right? They're asking you about the the new
moons, the crescent moons, quoted here Milwaukee to the NASCI. While
Hodge they are simply say, oh, Mohamed, they are simply tools for
telling time, and for determining the season of the pilgrimage. And
that's it. And Jews use a lunar calendar. In during the Temple
period, you had servants of the Temple Guard go out to the Mount
of Olives site, the moon and burn fires to let the people know that
it's like the moon. Right. But what's up with the flag of
Pakistan?
So you have this
right?
symbol here. So and I don't mean to pick on Pakistan, there's many.
There's many countries that have this as on their flag. But you
know, this symbol is one of the oldest icons in human history.
It's not Islamic in origin, nor is it exclusive to Islam. The Prophet
Muhammad's flags are solid black and white. There is no symbol that
he associated with Islam. The icon entered Islamic culture via the
Seljuk Turks in the 12th century, and was widely used by their
successors, the Ottomans, many, many Muslim majority countries
adopted the icon.
Okay, now there's another Semitic language called surah. Yeah, yeah.
Or Syriac. Late. It's sometimes called late Aramaic or Christian.
Aramaic is the language of Christ, according to many historians. Now
there's a translation of the New Testament, which is called the
Peshitta.
Which related to the Arabic the Sikh top simple.
This was done in the fourth century. It's a translation of the
Greek manuscripts into Syriac, the language of Christ, replacing
tations, a Diatessaron. That was written in the second century. If
you look in the Peshitta, Mark, chapter one, verse 15, according
to the Peshitta Jesus says, shamanism Na, were Matea
Mallacoota Allah Aha.
He says The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. So
in the way that it's spelled in Syriac
is
Alif Lam ha. Elif, right. And some Syriac grammars, like Brah,
Coleman will, will argue that the first lamb or the Lammott here
should be doubled. So you have
Hola Hola. Hola, ha, this is in Syriac, in the 11th century of the
Common Era, a Christian scholar named even Tayyab he translated
tations Diatessaron from the original Syriac into Arabic and he
translated this word
into Arabic as this Allah
Now what is the trilateral route? What is the meaning of Allah? So
there's there's some opinion about this actually. Let me erase this
666 stuff here.
Somebody takes a picture of it and calls me the Antichrist. Yes. So
one opinion is that the root is la ha, la ha This is from Cebu away a
Persian or Marian anyway.
Inside joke between me and the students. La ha. This This means
to shimmer are to to shine to shimmer. That's the root meaning
of lucha as they be the intangible arrows. He offers this alley ha.
Ali, ha
means to go back and forth in a state of fear and perplexity.
That's what that root meaning is. And this is supported by the BTB
the brown the brown driver Briggs, Hebrew English
lexicon and they give the root as the same letters I left la mud
Hey, hola, hola.
gesenius also gives this one ghoul so Alif Wow lum in the meaning
here is power. This is related to the Arabic Oh Walla Walla, Walla,
unformed to infinitive wheel, has the meaning
of, of mystical exegesis. Right, that's the technical meaning,
linguistically, it means to find the origin of something. So this
idea that God is the ontological origin of or source of all things
that he's mono rk is the first principle of all existence.
Okay, so I want to look at a verse in the Quran.
Really quickly here.
There's a surah. In the Quran, a chapter called loss. It's also
called a SAS, it's called a Tauheed. There's 18 to 22 names,
it's only four verses long. It is the heart of Islamic theology.
Surah 112. Right. So 112 One, this is what looks like
an Arabic
says call who Allah who hadn't?
Right. So call is an imperative to the Prophet. And by extension to
all of us say he is God, one. So grammarians, they try to identify
what's happening here grammatically, say they say who
this is the subject. This is called Muqtada. And here LeFou and
gelada, the expression of excitation. This is the predicate
the hover and then I had, there's an opinion that this is the
permutated and explanatory word of some sort, or that this is a
second predicate.
So hold on to that for a minute. I'll come back to it. Now, in the
Hebrew Bible, in the Tanakh, we have something called the
tetragrammaton.
Right? the tetragrammaton means four letter word. Yard. Hey, Vav.
Hey, yard, hey, Vav Hey. So like, why W?
These four Hebrew letters.
And these letters represent the name of God. No one knows how to
articulate these letters the high priest did on Yom Kippur war.
The early church fathers have conjectured and I apologize for
this. Yeah, way. But this is conjecture. There is something
somewhat similar to this in the Quran. There's some of the
chapters of the Quran at the very beginning. There are these
mysterious disjointed letters as they're called. And if Lam Meem
hammy Yacine ta Cafe are inside. Nobody really knows what these
means. Now, there's some mystical exigence who will conjecture
things but they always say Allahu Allah, God knows. Like a bit. He
was said, Hi, meet him, Ya Habibi, Mohammed. Right? Ha ha one of the
names of the Prophet Yacine Yes, Sayed. Yes, say a Jaffa saw that,
but nobody really knows. Right? Of course Western oriental is
believed these are the initials of the scribes that are really into
writing the Koran. But here's the thing, if you read the Hebrew
Bible, so the Shema, right, the great justification of of Jewish
faith or theology, Deuteronomy six for Shema Israel,
then you have yard Hey vav Hey
so here we have the tetragrammaton. Here we have the
tetragrammaton, right? But Jewish scribes are not allowed to
articulate this. It's the Shem Hama for OSH it's the name that's
not to be articulated. It's Hashem the name the great name. So
instead of saying
Yahweh way or something again, I apologize or something like that.
They will say I don't I
don't I do oops.
I don't know what the comments here right? I don't I ELO Hey, no,
I don't I hard Adonai Eloheinu Adonai. Interestingly, in the
Gospel of Mark, and Jewish scribe comes to Christ. And he says what
is a greatest commandment. And Mark has him say, quote The
Septuagint right the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible
Akua. You said I am here Israel kudos Hafez Heyman, quote, EOS
haste estin here, O Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is one. So
the Hebrew
and erase this part here.
The Hebrew word, the Hebrew tetragrammaton yd haev off, hey,
it's translated
oops
is translated
as kudos in Greek
kudos in the LXX in the Greek Septuagint, as well as the New
Testament. But here's the thing about the Greek kudos. Kudos can
also mean teacher or rabbi, or master in fact, in the Gospel of
John Philip is called kudos. So while the tetragrammaton only
refers to God, kudos can actually refer to human beings as well.
And then Elohim
Elohim is rendered half Baos in Greek ha fails
with the definite article, right? But the word fails
without the definite article,
right? Northcrest or Nikita? Indefinite is also used for non
deities. Right? I would argue that, you know, because John, the
Gospel of John calls Jesus famous without the definite article,
Jesus has not called Hot chaos in any gospel. He's called famous.
Interestingly, Philo obviously, not a biblical writer, but Philo,
in the life of Moses, a contemporary of the Gospel of
John, he calls Moses face EOS. Right. Paul calls Satan, Fayyaz,
the god of this world. So non deities, I'll come back to this
idea. But if we look at the tetragrammaton here,
your table of hey,
my contention is that it's probably derived from
this very archaic verb Hava have our means to be
to be. So then this looks like it's the if we add vowels, it
looks like it's the imperfect tense. Yeah, there. Yeah, there,
which means he is or he will be right.
Now,
the Arabic cognate, to hover, according to gesenius is how we
are how we are, however, meaning to breathe, how we are meaning to
love or to desire or to will. This idea that God is the breath of
existence, he will to create out of a demonstration of His love. So
yeah, yeah. So here we have the
prominent letters. Hey, in volve. Interestingly, in other places in
the Hebrew Bible,
a shorter form of the tetragrammaton is used with only
these two letters
as either whole, or who.
So like the Hebrew name of Jesus
translated Jeshua
Yahoshua
Yahoshua Jeshua, which is rendered in the Greek as none other than EA
Seuss, which is what Jesus has called the New Testament.
The meaning of this according to gesenius is saved by hole.
Hole, right, the name of one of the names of God, a shortened form
of the tetragrammaton and of course, I wrote these two letters
in Arabic.
You get this Ha, wow. Hua
Hua,
to come back to this idea. Now, as I said, Hava is very old. There's
a later form of the verb to be that's attested in the Hebrew
Bible as well. Which is Hi yah, with the Yoda in the middle. Hi,
yah. Hi Yah, so Hava Hi yah.
And
The third masculine singular present tense
would be Yeah, yeah. Which means he is or will be. Now, if I wanted
to change this to first common singular, what would I have to
change is the same in Arabic. So if this is your Kuno yaku he will
be how do I say I will be?
Huh?
Okay.
Cool. No, I have to change the prefix right. To what
and Elif
and Elif.
Yay, I am
a Yay. I am I will be. Now if you look at Exodus 314 In the Torah,
Moses at the burning bush, he's speaking to God and He says, you
know, when I go back to the Israelites, they're gonna ask me,
What is your name? What do I say? And God says to him, tell them
hey, Asha AE, I am who I am. I will be who I will be. Now this
was translated in the Septuagint as a goal
AMI
Hold on.
The Septuagint translated to 50 before the Common Era, by 70 Greek
speaking Hebrew scholars, they translated a Asha AE as a goal a
me a goal.
How do you write an English Ami? Hold on?
Yes, so here we have
a goal is the subject AMI is the copula to verb the linking verb
our predicate is Hold on, this is our predicate. Our predicate Hold
on This is the masculine definite article in the present active
participle on right. Like the word ontology is related to this. I am
the one who is that's how they understood it. I am the one who is
the one whose existence is absolutely necessary. The only non
contingent being watchable would include the monarch the first
cause of all, so for Philo,
for Philo, hold on is the name of God. In Greek, this is the
equivalent, right? Of the Hashem who on the one who is he calls
Moses they OS
right? Say OS
which means a god. But Philo is not a polytheist. Right? What does
he mean by that? He means a Moses is a sanctified, divine agent of
God in union with God, a divine with a lowercase d. That's how
he's using it. Now for John, the Gospel of John. My contention is
my dissertation work was on the Gospel of John files contemporary.
The father is Hans AOSS. The father is half a author with a
definite article, and Jesus is called theists. But I would also
contend that the way that John is using, I'm doing a lot of pure
wetter, the way that John is using Fayol is not so dissimilar as to
how Philo is calling Moses, Say us, that Jesus that Christ is a
sanctified divine agent of God and mystical union with God. Now, if
you look at and Jesus's in the sun, or Jesus, or Christ is never
called half AOSS anywhere in the four gospels. Right now, if you
look at the end of the prologue, John 118. John 118
is a beautiful verse. It says no one has at any time seen God.
No one has at any time seen God, but the mono
game as
fate EOS
Alright, so mono
kinase, Fe OS. Sometimes this is erroneously translate, I would say
it's erroneously translated as the only begotten God. Sometimes this
word says we OS in Greek, the only begotten Son, but se os is
actually better attested in the manuscripts. So the the Codex
Vaticanus, which will teach about love so much, the Codex Sinaiticus
and p 66. Nestle aland 27th edition UBS fourth edition, they
all took mono again as they EOS mono Guinness, one of a kind
divinized agent of God. No one has at any time, seen God
But a very uniquely divinized lowercase d, Agent of God who is
in the calapan to Theo Kalpana to path through who is in the bosom
of the Father in the heart of the Father. That is to say, who is
beloved to the Father XA gay Sato EXA. G Tim
speaks about him, makes you familiar with him gives you
mattify of him, the highest type of knowledge is Dattilo him
modified to Allah. Jesus quotes Hosea and Matthew Keith, that's
the facet veloza But that Elohim May Allah I require said mercy
love not sacrifice and the knowledge of God dot Elohim Mati
Fatah Allah more than burn offerings
now John 1030
Jesus says egg okay hot potato Hain Essman
he says I and the Father are one. This very interesting passage
here. No my favorite passages. So the Pharisees the pickup stones.
And so why you stoning me for which work that I've shown you
from the fathers and not for my work is because you're of
blasphemy, you're claiming to be God, Jesus's response very
interesting here. He says, does it not say in your scripture I said
you are Gods all sons of the Most High. quoting Psalm 82. Six,
doesn't it say in your scripture? A low him at Tim, you are Elohim.
God calls the judges who are prophetic figures in the Old
Testament in the Tanakh gods for B'nai la Yan, cool, let him all of
you are sons of the Most High says yet you say of the one whom the
Father sanctified and sent into the world, you blaspheme, because
I said, I am the Son of God. Right? So the point here is an Old
Testament, human beings in the Tanakh, human beings, as well as
God are called Gods.
In Exodus seven one, right, I will send you God speaking to Moses, I
will send you as Elohim unto pada o to Pharaoh, and Aaron as your
prophet, doesn't mean, Moses is literally God but a representative
of God, a divine agent, one who speaks with the authority of God
on who acts with the authority of God. This type of mystical union
that I believe is in the Quran, my UGR Rasool, Allah, Allah, whoever
obeys the messenger is obeying God. Why? Because they're the same
note because the messenger speaks with the authority of God. And
disobedience of him is as is the same as disobedience to God. And
interestingly, the rabbi's also referred to God as Father, this is
a Hebrew Hizam Isaiah 64 Eight.
They say,
at Adonai a vino. You are the Lord our father. I would contend that
this idea
right in in biblical text of God being a father, an OB, is
confirmed the concept of it, I would contend is confirmed in the
Quran without using the language of father that rub the word Rob in
the Quran is equivalent to how I believe the Bible is using Old and
New Testament. How the Bible is using father, who is your rub.
Your rub is the one who brings you up, raises you up takes care of
you, takes you takes care of you raises you up in stages. This is
the meaning of rub. It denotes God's eminence, his Korb right
that's what we pray in the Quran. There's a there's a there's a
supplication that God teaches us to say in the Quran to about our
parents.
It ham Houma have mercy on them Come on Rob by Yanni Savera. As
they raised me up in childhood, as they raised me up in childhood, or
up by Jani, Sophia Saphira. So look at these major prophets of
God, the Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet Jesus, the prophet Moses,
the Prophet Abraham, none of these great prophetic figures had their,
their biological fathers in their lives. They have what's known as
tarbiyah, rub Baniya they have a lordly upbringing. It's only in
this, this majaz this figurative way that these are quote unquote
sons of God. I think that's how the Bible is using the term.
Interestingly,
if you
and also the Rabbi say, a vino Shiva shamayim. They mentioned Our
Father who art in heaven.
This is a Hebrew ism, it's found in rabbinical literature, of wound
of Ishmael Christ says, and especially to our Father who art
in heaven. Also the phrase Son of God is a Hebrew ism. A son in the
Jewish context, is a servant of God par excellence.
In the Torah, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. God says to
David in the Psalms, you are my son this day I have begotten you.
Paul says in Romans four as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
these are the boy to fail. These are the sons or children of God.
It says in the prologue, Jesus gave them authority to be taken
out to throw you, children of God. Interestingly, the Quran quotes
Jesus the Quran says here so that Imran never would someone that God
gave the prophetic office, say to humanity Coonoor a bad day Leeming
doing Allah, they would never say humanity be my worshipers other
than God. Well, I can Qunu Rabbani Yin, but be lordly Rabbani Yean,
be lordly be reflections of God, your rub rub is equivalent to
Father up in the Bible. Someone who has Rabbani is quote unquote,
a child of God. That's how the term is used, I believe in
biblical text. And in John the phrase, the Son of God, who used
to fail, I would say is clearly a messianic title, a uniquely
divinized son.
Now, according to the Mishnah, the Shem, Hama frosh, the
tetragrammaton was only articulated in the temple, the
Beit Mikdash by the haka Hain Hagadol, the high priest, and it
was believed to be the most exalted name of God, the actual
name of his essence, right in distinction to Elohim which
indicates is essence Allah, Allah Moon Allah that right, a proper
name indicating the essence, Imam followed in a Razzie, one of the
great exegesis and philosophers in our tradition. He said that the
IsaMill of them the greatest name of God, is this.
Hua
Hua
right, containing the prominent letters of the tetragrammaton
the Hey, with a Ha, in the Wow, the very name of God's essence,
even Oribi the great master
he said, Ha hoot.
Ha hoot.
So here we have the prominent letters. Hua. The Rabbi's also
mentioned Ma
Ma hoot. With the prominent letters Hey, involve
so I would contend then, back to this here, all who Allahu Ahad
I would contend that what's happening here because if you look
at the ASVAB and Newzoo, if you look at the occasion of this
Surahs revelation, like you look at Anwar ad, for example, he gives
two occasions once in Mecca where polytheists are asking the Prophet
about God once in Medina when Jews are asking about God when Jews so
the response come say Hua is God I had, who? I would say, God, hey,
Vav Hey, is a confirmation of the tetragrammaton who was the name of
his essence, the greatest name? Who and then Allah is equivalent
to
eloheinu and if this is a second predicate, right as CLT says, then
you have this parenthetical yard Hey, vave again, who are
a hard
Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Johan who Allah who had a perfect
confirmation, of the principle, theological teaching of the Torah,
want to end with this? What is the personality of this God of Allah?
According to the Quran, according to Islam? What is the overarching
personality trait of this god? 113 out of 114 Sutras of the Quran,
begin with this concept oratory formula the sacred formula
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. Right. This called the best smeller
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim in the name of God or rough man, the
indiscriminately compassionate, or Rahim, the intimately loving. A
rough man is also mentioned in rabbinical literature. Ha ha man,
ha ha man. And this word is actually related to the word that
I am Russian ROM in Arabic and Hebrew, which is the womb of a
mother.
Right? There's a hadith of the poor
If it was mentioned in different books, we also saw leafing Imam
nawawi, where the prophet was outside standing with some of his
companions and a woman came running out of her house and she
was totally hysterical. And said, What's the matter? I lost my son.
My son is barely able to walk. Where's my son? Look for her son.
She's absolutely hysterical. They find her son, right? They give the
give her son to her. She takes her son hugs kisses and breastfeed
him. Right? The Prophet said to his companions that are there. Can
you imagine this woman taking her son and throwing him into a fire?
Can you imagine that? They said, la Wallahi by God, we can't. And
he said Allah who are humblebee everybody he mean had the heebie
Wallah De ha. God, Allah Elohim is more merciful to His servants than
this woman is to her son.
Children are taught what's known as the hadith of Rama. In
traditional curricula children five years old. This is the first
Hadith they learn the first statement of the Prophet Muhammad
they learned is called the Hadith the tradition of compassion. Or
Rafi Munna Your humble Homer Rahman era hammelmann Fill out
your hammock command for sama moose, not Achmed.
The most compassionate shows compassion to those who show
compassion, show compassion to those on earth and the one in
heaven will show you compassion, compassion, compassion,
compassion, compassion, compassion Bahama. This was chosen by
traditional aroma scholars as the first Hadith to teach children to
drill into their minds. That compassion is a great, great
virtue, that this is the greatest virtue in the Islamic tradition.
The Quran says what Amati what's the adequate Lashay my compassion
covers everything. Some of the names of God, I look for the most
forgiving I love dude, the most loving, A salaam peace. My monitor
is also confirmed has Shalom. One of the names of God is has Shalom
he says in missional Torah. He says it's forbidden to use this
word as a greeting if you're in a bathhouse, because it's one of the
names of God.
The famous hadith of Sandman, the person
who said that the Prophet Muhammad said God divided his mercy into
100 equal parts. He took one part out of 101% and he put it in
creation. And it's through. Its through this one part of His
mercy, that all of creation shows compassion towards one another.
And he's reserved 99 parts of his mercy for the Yama Yama, Yama,
Dean Yom had Dean the Day of Judgment.
The Prophet said, lead Ted, hello, Jana, to Hatha Tumino wala took me
know how to have boo. None of you will enter paradise until you
truly believe and none of you will truly believe until you love one
another. Love one another. Somebody I quoted this one time
and somebody said yeah, that's, that's John 15. Right? Yeah. There
was something like that. And John 15, but I'm quoting from the
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Oh, really? He said, done.
Yeah. And then he said, Shall I tell you of something that if you
do it, it will increase love? And they said yes. So I've sure Salama
Boehner. Come spread peace amongst yourselves.
Let me know I had to come after you. Hey, buddy. Happy May you
rebel enough, see, oh, come akala here salatu wa sallam. He also
said these are rigorously authenticated traditions. None of
you truly believe until he loves for his brother what he loves for
himself. And then one of the companions said while I love my
there's my brother. I love him. I love him. And he said the Prophet
said no, I don't mean your Muslim brother. And your I mean your
brother or sister because the masculine gender encapsulates the
fifth female gender, brother or sister in Benny Adam, in the
Children of Adam, in humanity.
Alright.
So I'll end with this, I promise. The heart of the Abrahamic
tradition
is summed up by Rabbi Hillel in the second century is Deuteronomy
six four, which is this, the next verse six, five, live Leviticus
1918 Schmeisser, Dona Elhanan,
there are Haftar at Adonai ILAHA Bikol Lavaca over coldenhoff shefa
will be called may or DACA. Here Israel the Lord our God the Lord
is one and you shall love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, soul
and strength and love your neighbor as yourself neighbor
means your fellow man in the generic sense. Jesus confirms
this. In that passage, and Mark no other commandment is greater than
these to follow Dino Rossi. He said. They asked him What is
Islam? Because they asked Rabbi Hillel, what is the torah and he
quoted these three verses. He said everything else is commentary.
What is Islam? Right? Rossi said I
Islam
and a banda to lil Holic Warahmatullah
is worship of the Creator and showing compassion towards his
creation.
This is the personality of Allah subhanaw taala, as I understand
it, and the vast, vast majority of Muslims understand it in the
Quran. Thank you very much for patience. We'll take some
questions. I guess it's and I'm on a camera what
you meant when you mentioned the personality of God had made me
think a little bit about the controversy that happened recently
that I thought you might work into your thought, but you didn't,
which is the Wheaton College controversy,
which also touched upon, is it the same God? And there was the issue
of the Trinity and stuff. So can you give us a quick take your take
on that controversy? And what that would? Yeah. How you would address
that? Yeah, so it's a difficult question. Do Muslims and
Christians worship the same God? Again, in principle, she's talking
about us if you're talking about Dr. Hawkins, right. at Wheaton
College, he was terminated from her position because she dared to
say Muslims and Christians worship the same God. I would say yes,
they do worship the same God. In principle that is the same God.
But there are differences in theology, obviously. So Muslims
don't believe in the Trinity. Right? At least how the vast
majority of Muslims read the Quran, there is a
a polemical aspect when it comes to Orthodox Christian theology.
For example, in Surah, four verse 171, well, that's a Kulu Thalassa
don't say three until later lakum desist, it is better for you. In
them, Allahu Allahu Anhu ahead, for your God is one God. And
interestingly, here in this verse, the word wide is used and not I
had, I would contend why it denotes God's internal oneness,
that he's one person. He's a simple unity, right? Because
Christians don't believe in three gods. They believe in three
persons of God. Right? So it's Trinitarian mono theism, whereas
Islam can be described as Unitarian monotheism. Right? So
there are definitely differences in how we theologizing and this
was also the point of many of the early church fathers,
Contra Marcion, who is saying that it's a different God. And we see
that paradigm now the paradigm has shifted our elements within
evangelical Christians, that type of persuasion, who are
perpetuating this idea that Muslims worship a completely
different God, and it's not the different God. So people, if they
do talk to Muslims, open the Quran, it's very clear that
Muslims worship the God of Abraham. Right? Yes, there are
differences in theology. That's true. But you know, our theology
is very close to Jewish theology. And I wonder how many of these
same evangelicals will say that about the Jews, they worship a
different god? Right.
So, you know, obviously, if there needs to be clarification, if by
God You mean the father, right, how fast the god, Rob, Rob will
Alameen Yes. But if by God, you mean, you mean Jesus, the No, we
don't worship Jesus. Right? We don't worship Jesus. But
Christians are saying very clearly that Jesus is the God of Abraham.
So it is the same garden in principle.
Questions, you want to go up to the microphone, it's over on the
side in the front.
Thank you.
Dr. Ali. Thank you. So I appreciate it. And I very much
enjoy your argument. But there's a counter argument as well. And the
counter argument, of course, is most I would say,
Christian theologians wouldn't agree with your take on even
interpretations. So for example, the
the Council of Nicaea, right? Looked at their dressings, even
like the issue, what's the Son of God? And they clearly said this,
Jesus exists. And he's got to say, I believe that their idea was that
the Son of God actually can exist, and the interpretations should say
exactly that. I think that's what was the result? You sort of
develop the argument that if we examine the language differently,
we can have a different take? And I think in some instances, yes,
you're correct. But in some instances, you still go up against
that trend of the argument that that insists just the opposite.
Yeah, I would, I would agree with you. I would say that there's
different ways of reading these texts. I would contend that
there's a there's a way of reading even John's Gospel with his high
Christology. You know, it's skyscraping theology, as some have
described it in Christology. There's a way of reading those
texts through an Islamic lens
We can actually confirm the entire text. And I think it's doing it
through the lens of what I call Islamic field mysticism. Looking
at these, looking at these texts, through through the lens of
Tawheed, through the lens of Islamic spirituality, obviously,
you know,
most of the early church fathers or if not all of them,
certainly after Nicaea, they would read, you know, before Abraham was
I AM, and to hear Jesus claiming to be the I Am, he's claiming to
be what God told Moses at the burning bush. Yes, I realized that
that is a standard way of interpreting the text. But I would
challenge that and say there's a different way of reading the text.
Right? If you look at the Greek of that verse 858, of John, print
Abraham goodness, Tiago, me, right? So, in Exodus Eggo, me Hold
on, hold on, is the divine aspect a Go me doesn't mean anything, it
just means I am I can say I am me it right, the whole on the
predicate, that's the claim to divinity. So, Jesus is I am, so if
you just have I am, I am you need to supply a predicate or else the
sentence is incomplete. So, you have to supply he I am He, in
order for sentence to be coherent. I am who? Well, I think all of
these I am statements and John should be governed or should be
delimited. By the first I am statement, which is in John For
the woman at the well, who asked Jesus I who says to Jesus, I know
Messiah is coming. And when He comes, he's gonna tell us all
thing. He just says, ergo me.
I am he, I am the Messiah. So there's different ways of reading
these texts. There's different Christians, who were Unitarians
who revered the Gospel of John. Right, who didn't believe that
Jesus was God. You know, whatever. The Aryans believed it's hard to
get a firm grasp because most of what we have from about Arias
Arianism is written by proto orthodox authorities who were
writing, you know, refutations of it. But it appears as if the
Aryans at least did not believe that the son was equal to the
Father. No doubt they revered the Gospel of John. Right. So on that
part, and John, as well mentioned set in the word there was in the
beginning, there was the word the word was with God, and the Word
was God, were you. Do you make the same argument? Yeah, again, the
Greek is important, and RK and how Lagace in the beginning was the
Word.
And the Word was with God. Chi ha Laga, same process, tun, Theon,
and the Word was with the god definite article, chi, Fe OS,
indefinite chi Fe EOS ain hallazgos. And a divine entity, I
would say, yeah, exactly how Moses is called by Philo. And a
sanctified agent was the word, a highly exalted decree was the
word. So there's different ways of reading that text. You know,
obviously,
we're gonna sort of come at loggerheads with Trinitarian
exigence. Yeah. But I think that there's a well established
Unitarian tradition within Christian history that can be
looked at that is in line with our theology. I enjoy your arguments,
and they're very well developed. And thank you. Thank you for your
scholarship. Thank you, for the hard one. Yes, sir.
Going to take a question from online with your permission.
We have been asked by proto Orthodox Christian, do you mean
before Constantine's Council of Nicaea Gnostics were early
Christians, that did not go along with the mainstream Catholic
doctrine? Correct? Yeah, I'm using this term. I think it was coined
by Ehrman proto orthodox. So the way that Ehrman is using it,
Ehrman is the author of the Orthodox corruption of Scripture,
Misquoting Jesus, and many other texts. The way that he's looking
at it, as he says, There's four main groups of Christians, four
main groups before Nicaea, before Nicaea, to the proto Orthodox, and
the Aryans are included in there as well. There's great diversity
within proto orthodoxy, but basically the forerunners of what
would be Orthodox Christianity. And then another group, the
Gnostics and then another group, the Marcia knights that I
mentioned. And then a fourth group, he mentions as the
Ebionites or the you know, the, the Jewish Christians, those
Christians who had a more Jewish orientation in their in their
theology. So I'm using the term as as Ehrman is using it for runners
of Christian orthodoxy. Let's take a question over here.
Thank you, stead of ally for your talk as a fellow lover of the
Bible and the Koran and their languages. It's very refreshing to
hear someone who's as fluid in God's chosen languages for His
scriptures as you are.
I found that
Interesting to answer the question of whether Muslims and Christians
and Jews worship the same God, you turn to language.
As I think the way that I've often learned and studied biblical
languages from the perspective of Modern Linguistics, the signifier,
the signified, it's an arbitrary connection, why is a lot related
to Elohim? It's just because they come from the same proto Semitic
root, it doesn't really have any meaning in itself. That is, the
form of the language isn't part of the Revelation. So how would you
reconcile the way that maybe a modern linguistic approach would
would look at this with the way that you're approaching it? And
this is not a question that I've answered either. So I'm curious on
your take? Yeah, I think it's, I think there's two ways to go about
the question. One is looking at linguistic aspect of it.
You know, there's an old Italian axiom that says the translator is
a trader, right? So looking at languages, looking at Scripture
through translation, you just, I can't I can't even do it anymore.
I can't read an English Koran. I can't read the New Testament in
English. You. It's like watching. What's the analogy I use? It's
like listening to the Superbowl on the radio, that's a translation,
and then watching the Superbowl on an IMAX in four D. That's reading
the original, original languages. So I think it is important to make
those linguistic connections. I think that's very important. But
at the end of the day, like I said, the ancient Canaanites they
called God ail the Canaanites, right? They don't worship the God
of Abraham. So saying, making these linguistic connections are
important. But then that's why we also have to look at the concept
of God. What does the Quran actually say about God? does the
Quran say that this is the moon god? What does it say? What's his
personality in the Quran? Is your theological consistency there with
God's quote unquote, personality? Other people point out, you know,
Lucifer and Isaiah, Hebrew and Hebrew Lucifer is halal, halal,
right. And, you know, these apologies, these polemicist, they
say, you know that moon is called a hill out.
Don't.
So it's a symbol of Lucifer, because it has a common
etymological root. Oh, really? Yeah. You know, what else has
shares that route? Hallelujah.
Right? Well, wait a minute. So linguistic things are interesting,
right? And I think that it's very, very important. Because these
languages were revealed in the these books were revealed in these
languages, right? That you missed so much in translation. And you
really don't get the full flavor of the text and you in the Quran.
There are four words for heart, and an English for all translated
heart. There's four different words, A sada and foo add and
called, and Loeb, and they all have very interesting nuances of
meaning. And you just missed that in translation. In the New
Testament, there are different words for love in the gospel of
God pay philia oftentimes, you know, at the end of the Gospel of
John, you know, chapter 21. You know, Jesus asked Peter, do you
love me? You know, I love you. Do you love me? You know, I love you.
You love me, you know, I love you like what's going on here? But the
word for love is different. Right? I got I got past me Naiku da. He
says
get nose kiss.
get asked this filo say says Do you have a god pay for me? Yes,
Lord, you know, I have philia for you. And then he repeats aka past
me. You have a god pay for me. But the translation Do you love me is
I love you. You love me? Yes, I love you. Okay. So looking at
language is extremely important. So looking at these things, I
think,
at least for me, is something that I found to be revelatory, I found
to be a way of bringing communities together. Right, is a
way of, of heightening the discourse from the polemicist some
of you know, turn this on its side and it says Bismillah which is
unfortunately very, very popular. You have Muslim polemicists, right
who go up and they make fun of the Bible. You know, they laugh at
Christians, you know what they do in church man? They take this
bread and it's like, what do you you know, the Quran says Orilla
CBD Arabic Bill Hekmati? Well Merida till Hassan what Jad dill
humility, here axon, the Quran says called people to the way of
your LORD with Wisdom and the aroma hearsay wisdom here is with,
with proofs with with sophisticated
academic rigor. What about you? That's an hasna. And with
beautiful exhortation This means to do it with a good comportment.
Right. So one is not arrogant when they're doing it. And one isn't.
One one isn't very humble but cannot provide academic proofs
and debate with them or argue with them in ways that are better than
then, you know, just argumentation for the sake of ego, as the
scholars interpret that, let's take a couple of questions here
because we're running out of time. So if you can make a question
short, and we'll try and move through, thanks. It's not like
you said that the word theist is used as
an Loralee upbringing for Jesus and Moses in the Bible, in the
Bible, not in the Bible. Moses by Philo. Okay, contemporary of John.
Yeah. Okay. So do you know so those are two prophets that didn't
have fathers? Do you know that the same word is used for prophets who
did have fathers such as Joseph or Abraham, Ishmael?
Isaac, who didn't have fathers didn't have fathers, they weren't
brought up by their fathers. Right. So I word was used for them
as in lordly nourishment. Okay. I don't know. I mean, the point I
was making is that floss, anyone can be a floss, the judges are
called Gods at 10 Elohim. That's, that's the Hebrew of judges.
That's what Jesus uses in John, in his debate against the Pharisees.
And these judges probably were raised by their fathers. That's
not the point. The point is that, that a famous atheists a God and
we obviously, this is, you know, we have to get accustomed to how
the Bible uses language because I'm not gonna say that, you know,
what, Allah when he is a God, we don't call men God. Ila a God is
not used the way we use Arabic. Right. But that word really means
what the
right that's what that means. You are saints of God, sanctified
agents of God. That's, I believe that's how it's being used in the
Tanakh and in the New Testament.
Salam Alaikum. Welcome. So I want to ask you a question regarding
the comparing the gods from Christianity and Old Testament,
Jews and Islam. I got a question I really about the Gospel says,
Jesus Christ said, Whoever came before me, he was a thief and
liar. So Christianity says, That's why only Jesus didn't lie. So
whereas before was a false question is if the John came and
introduced Jesus Christ, so according to the book is a liar.
And Abraham was a liar. Moses was a liar. So I should actually ask
this question about the pastor. I know your knowledge about them,
Gospels, and also,
Paul says,
The Jews killed God.
And the Jews are our enemy and God's enemy. So if the Paul
believe on the other Christianity, believe it, they shouldn't believe
anything on Old Testament and Torah, because all those messenger
of God came. And if they are, you know, they think that they killed
God, then how come they don't separate their books? That's my
question. Yeah. Thank you. Good question. So I think what you're
referring to earlier in John 10, perhaps,
John 10, I am I am the good shepherd is a John 10. Anyone to
remember. So he says before me were were before me came.
Thieves and brigands lay stays. I don't think he's talking about
prophets that came before him. I don't interpret it that way. I
think he's talking about messianic claimants who came before him. And
obviously, we're liars because Jesus is the true Messiah.
And he says he, he characterizes these pseudo messiahs as those who
want to enter through another door into the sheep gate, not through
the proper door, and he says, I am that door. Right. So you know,
people who want to materialize the messianic kingdom through other
ways. For example, you can take example like Barabas, right
through zealotry
or one can make an example of like Judas trying to force you know,
Christ to do something.
Allahu Allah. I don't know, but I don't think he's referring to
previous prophets there. And as far as what Paul says, about, you
know, the Jews with a Judeans.
Yeah, I would I would consider
a lot of what Paul says to be problematic. I think you're
referring to First Thessalonians 215 where he says, they they
killed the Lord Jesus and their prophets, they please not God and
are contrary to all men.
So this requires a sophisticated X
to Jesus that I can't give you right now. But on the face of
that, and it's really important, you know that when we look at
these texts, I can make anyone look violent and racist. I can
quote something from the Koran out of context and make the text look
like it's, you know, terribly violent, or sexist or misogynist.
I can do that with my monitors, I can do what the khazali I can do
with Aquinas, right. So these things require me I can't answer
this question in 30 seconds. These things require sophisticated
exegesis.
You know,
we'll tell you a story. But Forget it. I'll tell you next time around
is there a question from the online? That actually our camera
lady had a very good question. I want to give her the opportunity
to let's, let's make that the last question. Because we're running
out of time. Go ahead. I can you expand upon people calling
themselves gods? You mentioned that. And when you said it, you
mentioned people calling themselves gods? Can you expand
upon that only because when you said that I instantly thought
about in hip hop culture, there's the commonality of people calling
themselves gods and
and there's branches of people within the African American
community that this is like a thing. And so I just wanted to if
you could expand upon that, okay, well, that's something in pop
culture. I'm out of touch. So
you know, I'm I'm quite agent, when it comes to that.
I'm still talking about Three's Company. So
anyway,
yeah. So this again, this concept of human beings being called God,
this is found in the Old and New Testament, it appears like the
word in Greek faith boss is applied to broadly to someone who
has some sort of
extraordinary ability of some sort.
You know, the god of this world, you know, reference to Satan, you
know, he has an extraordinary ability. But I think when the,
Jesus says in John, those to whom receive those, those who receive
the messages of God are called Gods in Scripture cannot be
broken. So in the Old Testament has phenomena of, of prophets of
God being referred to as God?
Right interchangeably. Very interesting. I think there's some
of this in the Quran. Juan Mata Mata either Amita, while akin
Allah ha Rama, very interesting verse, the prophet one time, he
picked up some stones and he threw them. And God said to him, You
didn't throw when you threw God through? Meaning that the limbs
the actions, the words of the Prophet are totally guided by God
when he does something even so seemingly mundane, it is according
to God's will, pleasing will. That type of mystical union it is as if
even out of the stresses it is as if God did it. And the prophet
speaks it is as if God is speaking, as if Kana, right
because his limbs and his speech are guided by God. There's a
beautiful Hadith a sound Hadith in Bukhari, Hadith glitzy sacred
Hadith extra Quranic utterance, the Prophet says, that God says,
My servant does not draw close unto me with anything more beloved
by me than his obligatory acts of worship. While Ah, yes, I do. Abdi
Yatta caribou, Illa benowa Phil, and he continues to draw close
unto me, with extra acts of worship had to hit by until I love
him, and then I become the eye by which he sees the hand by which he
holds and the foot by which he walks and he if he were to ask
anything from me, I shall surely give it to him.
So this is not we don't take this hockey cut to God becomes your eye
becomes that means this person become sanctified by God.
His limbs become guided by God. This is a type of mystical union
that we're talking about. Such people are called I will Yeah, in
Arabic in the court in the Bible, they're called Elohim gods.
divinities lowercase d,
right.
Also in the Quran surah to Toba is 62. What Allahu Allah sunnah who
are Haku and Euro do who God and His Messenger it is more befitting
that you please him. So two subjects are mentioned but the
pronoun is third masculine, singular, it's not a duel. So one
might say, well, it looks like an error. The reference is two but
the pronoun is see, no, this was intentional. Aim for it to be
says. This means that God and His Messenger have an intimate very
close relationship, that if you please, Allah's Messenger, it is
as if you're pleasing God. If you displease Allah's messengers, as
if you're displeasing God, this type of mystical union.
Alright.
And there's other things we can look at as well. But maybe we're
out of time. Okay, please join me in giving a round of applause to
Dr. Olea thigh
Thank you very much. If I said anything offensive, please forgive
me.
So thank you. Thank you all for coming and on the way out. You
might peek into the bookstore and be safe tonight. May God be with
you