The importance of understanding the context and context of Jesus's teachings, particularly in the context of Islam, is emphasized. The church's history and use of the word "Gospels" are also discussed. The speakers emphasize the importance of researching the Bible and the church's history to determine the truth behind it. They use examples such as The Lion King, Jada's desire to become a doctor, and how women in the workplace can create a culture of empathy and empowerment.
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Bismillahirrahmanirrahim in Al hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah salam, alaikum
warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu brothers and sisters.
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Today we're going to be speaking about Isa Alayhi, Salam Jesus,
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upon whom bpce. Man, messenger, Messiah. Now, this presentation today has been taken from this brand
new book called Jesus man, messenger Messiah, published by AI era. And it was written by Abu
Zakaria, who is here today. And he's going to give us a 10 minute or 15 minute presentation after my
discussion on the kind of unique highlights of this book. For those who will be watching online, you
can go to ai era.org. And you can basically give us your email, and we will tell you how to get one
of these books, in my view. And I spent a lot of time today reading the book, and analyzing the book
and studying the book. In my view, it's the best book on the topic of Jesus from an Islamic
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perspective, on the topic of deconstructing the Christian conception of Jesus in a warm,
compassionate ways the best book on this topic in the English language, I haven't seen anything
that's available. And we have a very big library in the office. And also other known speakers and
students of knowledge have said the same thing. So I do encourage you to study because talks are 1%.
We live in an age, which we like to listen to things, we go on YouTube or Facebook. And we've and we
think that's enough. But we need to ground ourselves properly, looking at the references,
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studying the references, understanding the content, so you can change who we are. Because knowledge
is not data, that information. Knowledge is data that changes you. It's information that has a
transformative effect. And actually, by reading this book, I fell in love with Jesus.
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I did, I fell in love with East LA he salam, the true conception of Isa alayhi salam, as you all
know, Jesus, from an Islamic perspective, was a man. He was pious. He was very spiritual. If you
read the many traditions you can find in Muslim Ed Akhmad, you find some gems and some wisdom. And
fundamentally he was here to call people to the worship of the Creator, and call them away from
worshipping creation. And what does worship mean in Islam, brothers and sisters, it means to know
God to know Allah Subhana Allah to Allah, to love Allah subhana wa to Allah, to obey a lot, obey
God, and to direct all your acts of worship to God to God alone. And this is very fundamental, and
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the theme of worship is going to basically resonate throughout this presentation.
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As a starting note, I think it's very important for us to understand the context of today's
discussion. The context is how we're going to
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gain some information gained some knowledge, rather, in order to compassionately and intelligently
convey our understanding of Jesus to the world, including Christians, Christian Christians, or non
Christians.
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And I really want you to understand, if we want to convey our conception of Jesus to the world,
Christians and non Christians, then we have to do it in a way that's in accordance with Islamic
ethics, and the Islamic values. What are the Islamic ethics and values when you want to call people
to something when you want to share something, when you when you want to convey something, the
Islamic ethics is that you genuinely care for human human beings. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam said in a Hadith, and this hadith this tradition can be found in today's al Kabir, as
narrated by Al Bukhari. He said love for humanity. The Arabic here is not a key he is not brother,
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your brother, it's an S, lioness NES love for Lynette what you love for yourself? Okay. So it's very
important if we love
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Islam, we love guidance, guidance will have goodness, we love the truth, the correct conception of
Jesus. If we love this, then we should share it naturally. For example, when you go to university,
you have a professor there. He may be a professor on physics. The reason or most of the time, the
reason he's teaching physics because he loves physics.
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Right. The reason we want to share this understanding of Jesus is because we love Jesus, we love
Allah, we love how he will have the oneness of Allah subhanho wa Taala, the oneness of God, and we
want to share it with our fellow human beings. Okay? And that's very important. That's the first
point to understand love for humanity, what you love for yourself. The other point you need to
understand is, don't be under any illusion that we Muslims have a monopoly of righteousness. We
don't have a monopoly on righteousness just because we believe we have the correct conception of the
Divine, the correct conception of Jesus, it doesn't automatically mean that now we are outwardly
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more righteous than others. Allah makes it very clear. He tells us in the Quran, that we shouldn't
have wishful thinking that people have the book, nor the Muslims should have wishful thinking that
we are going to go to Paradise or we are the most righteous, okay? No one has a monopoly, no
monopoly on righteousness. Allah makes it very clear in the third chapter of the Quran, verse 113,
when Allah says, they are not the same people, the people of the book are not the same. Everybody is
different Muslims are different. The people of the book are different. It's not one monolithic
group. And amongst the people of Scripture, are upright, just people that worship Allah subhanho wa
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Taala. This is in the offset of a temporary don't think now there are like distinct camps. You have
the Christians and the Muslims, the Muslims are brilliant, and, and the righteous and you have the
Christians, the Gnostic, this is not a Quranic narrative, by the way, this other organization, this
thinking there are distinct groups, and the group that you don't belong to is all evil. This is not
Islam. Allah mix is clear in the third chapter of the Quran, they are not the same people are not
the same Muslims and the people of Scripture. And this is very important for us to understand
because it changes the way we approach other groups in society. And we don't think they're a
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monolith. The old bad, no, this bad amongst Muslims, this bad amongst non Muslims. And there you go.
It's the human, it's the human predicament, okay. Now, why am I mentioning this is because the
concept of other realization, the concept of thinking that there is a distinct group, and that group
is all evil, is actually for me the basis of extremism. It's the basis of hardening our hearts, and
we're not able to adopt the ethics of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, when he went to all
human beings, and he had aurasma, he had compassion. And he had him he had forbearance, what is
forbearance? Does anyone know? forbearance is patience against hatred, patience, steadfastness
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against people who attack you, okay? And what's the correct narrative on forbearance, very famous
verse in the context of conveying Islam. Allah says respond to evil, with that which is better. And
between the people who had hatred amongst them, they will now become close, intimate bosom friends.
So this is the Islamic narrative we love for humanity we will have for ourselves. We don't think
these kind of binary groups and other groups other than our own, our own evil, this is other
realization and wrong and not Quranic. We're all human beings. And we want to share Islamic an
intelligent and compassionate way.
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And also, that we have to understand that no one has a monopoly on righteousness, and that when we
want to speak to people would do with forbearance and kindness, and Rama, that's very important for
us to understand. So moving on.
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Let's now focus on the concept of Allah subhana wa tada the concept of the Creator, the concept of
God in Islam. Now, essentially, the concept of God in Islam is based on three main kind of
categories, three main types of concepts. The first is the oneness of a loss of God's creative
power. This is known in the Islamic tradition as the oneness of Allah rubia. Okay, so, Allah is the
sole sustainer and maintainer and owner and carer
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and now Russia, of everything that exists, okay. No one shares this, this is solely
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this solely belongs to Allah subhanho wa Taala. He is unique in this and he is the sole sustainer,
owner, maintainer, and nourisher of everything that exists. The second point is that Allah has names
and attributes. He has defined himself but with names and attributes, we affirm these names and
attributes.
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But we believe they're unique to him. Okay. And we also believe he is transcendent Lisa chemistry he
she, there is nothing like a loss of pan of water Allah. And his names and attributes are what you
call perfection in Islam. We believe in a maximally perfect theology, maximal perfection. What does
this mean in the normal English language? It basically means that Allah has names and attributes
have no deficiency, and no flaw. Human beings names and attributes are deficient and flawed and may
be caring, but my care is not boundless. And there is a flaw in the way I care. And I'm deficient, I
can't care for everybody, right? But Allah when he defines himself as algo, dude, meaning the loving
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coming from the Arabic would which means a loving that is giving. His love is boundless, has no
deficiency, it's pure, right? And he has no floor. This is what we mean by Allah subhanho wa Taala.
We affirm His names and attributes. They are unique, he is transcendent, there is nothing like unto
Him. And these names and attributes have no deficiency and no flow. The other aspect of Allah is
oneness of who Allah is, is the oneness of his divinity. This is also known as the Oneness the towel
heat of Alibaba, or the Tao heat of Allah here, okay, the oneness of Allah divinity. What does this
really mean? It means that we direct all our acts of worship acts can include the actions of the
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heart, right and the actions of the limb, we redirect all acts of worship to Allah subhanho wa Taala
alone, not to nothing else, but to Allah.
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And as I said before, worshiping Allah means to love Allah, to know Allah to obey Allah to direct
those acts of worship, to Allah alone. And this is beautifully summarized in the 112 chapter of the
Quran. Allah says, cool, who Allah who I had to say a lot, the data who's worthy of worship, because
Allah according to the Arabic linguists also means Allah, Allah, the One who deserves worship, okay.
So say, the one who deserves worship
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is one I had, I had means not only one but uniquely one, okay, because why it means one as well, but
it doesn't have the connotation of uniqueness. So I had is uniquely one. And then Allah says God,
eternal, he begets not nowhere to be gotten.
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He wasn't born and doesn't give birth, and there is nothing like on to him. Okay, so this is a very
unique understanding of Allah subhanho wa Taala. It's understood by five year olds is understood by
15 year olds, is understood by 55 year olds. And if we reach the age of 500, it will be understood
by 500 year olds, okay, because it's such an intuitive concept, very intuitive, like even when I was
speaking to my father, he comes from a Christian background, when I spoke to him about these
categories. His understanding of Allah is Yeah, of course, this is good. It's part of your fifth
law, as you know, fitrah is the innate disposition, the nature of life is created within you, to
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acknowledge Him and to and to worship Him. Right. So this is part of the fifth law. So this is the
understanding of Allah subhanho wa Taala of God in the Islamic tradition. It's very pure, it's very
innate, it's very intuitive. Now, contrast this with the conception of God in mainstream
Christianity. Okay, now, I want you to contrast this now what I've just said about the oneness of
Allah is rubia, the fact that he is the sole creator Sustainer of the universe, his creative power,
the oneness of his names and attributes the oneness of his divinity. Contrast this in a natural
belief, with the conception of God in Christianity. Now, by the way, there are many differences. I'm
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not saying the whole of Christianity agrees with this. No, there are differences, but we're going to
be talking about the most popular, the most popular conception of God in the Christian tradition, is
a conception of a Triune God, a train god, this is known as the Trinity, okay. So this means that
God is One being who exists eternally as three distinct persons, let me just repeat, God is One
being who exists eternally as three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and
sometimes you will, you'll hear it as the Holy Ghost.
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Now, the passes of the Trinity are not to be confused. So the father is not the son. The son is not
the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the father. All three persons of the Trinity are co
equal, and co eternal. Okay. Now I see many confused faces. Well, this is exactly what it creates.
It creates this unnatural confusion and we're not seeing this
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to belittle them, we're not saying this to, you know, mock, with genuinely genuinely having an
intellectual exercise here, okay? Now a key element in this Trinity in this trait, Moon God is the
concept of the incarnation. Okay? What does this mean? It means that the second person of the
Trinity the son, took human flesh in the bodily form of Jesus. So there was this co eternal, right,
co equal son.
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Right, the second of the Trinity
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became human flesh in the form of Jesus. That's the concept of His incarnation. So when Marian when
Mary alayhis, salaam gave birth to Isa Alayhi, salaam, Jesus, God, according to the Christian
tradition, entered into creation, and the virgin conception, God acquired an identity he would
retain for the rest of eternity. So Jesus is said to be God, man, he has two natures, one divine and
one human. So Jesus said to be both fully God, and both fully man. Okay, so let me just repeat this
because it, it highlights one of the
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a critical philosophical problem that undermines biblical Christianity, okay, or mainstream
Christianity. So let me repeat this, there was the Son, the second of the Trinity coeternal, called
equal, enters into creation, by human flesh, in the form of Jesus, when he was so called born,
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as a result of Mary given birth,
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he now acquired a new identity, God, man, fully God, and fully human.
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Now, do you see what the problem here is?
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Because in biblical Christianity, they believe God is changeless, his essence doesn't change.
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The Trinity is part of his essence.
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But he changed, he got a new identity, the moment he was born into Earth, right, the moment he came
into Earth, in the form of human flesh, in the form of Jesus, he, God, apparently, according to this
Trinitarian, understanding, adopted a new identity, God, man, fully God and fully man.
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So it means his nature changed.
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This is a philosophical problem. Because according to theology, according to Christian theology,
according to biblical understanding, God can't change. But yet, the essence of God change because
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the son, the second of the Trinity,
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was born into human flesh in the form of Jesus and adopted a new identity.
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God, man, fully God and fully human.
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That is a huge problem in
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Christianity, and also, it's a philosophical problem, because if you think about it, from an
intellectual point of view, if the conception of God that his essence doesn't change, but then
according to the Trinity, the Trinitarian perspective, the second of the Trinity actually adopted a
new nature. He changed, then it creates a huge problem.
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And it's no wonder Dr. James White, one of the foremost apologists for the Trinity today, he
actually exposes the confusion that everybody has, well, Christians have. He says, For many
Christians, the Trinity is an abstract principle, a confusing and difficult doctrine that they
believe, although they're not really sure why, in the honest moments.
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Now, obviously, you have many Christians, when you go on the streets, and you want to give Dawa, you
want to convey a compassionate and intelligent case for Islam. When you're on the internet or you're
on the phone or you have family, we have your next door neighbors that you take care of whatever the
case may be, you have some rebuttals, some counter arguments, for example, and they come in the form
of analogies to try and prove the Trinity from a rational point of view. They say the Trinity is
like an egg, the shell, the white and the yolk, but still one right. Then they may say, the Trinity
like three forms of water, ice, liquid, and vapor. All they see the trees that can man you can exist
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as a father, he can exist as a son, and he can exist as a husband, right? For many of the sisters,
maybe he exists as a ghost.
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So these analogies are very problematic from a philosophical point of view from an intellectual
point of view. We want to use a reason Allah says to use your affiliate alone does not use the
intellect. So let's explain why the egg analogy is wrong. Then an egg analogy doesn't work.
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Because the doctrine of the Trinity states that each person, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit is fully God, but you never say the shell is fully egg, or the wife is fully egg, or the yolk
is fully egg, no one would ever say this, right? So it's a false analogy from that point of view.
Also, Take, for instance, the water analogy, it doesn't work either. because it implies that God
first manifested Himself as a father, then a son, and then a Holy Spirit.
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But this is wrong, because this example this analogy of water just shows that the forms are
temporary. Ice doesn't always remain ice, right? Ice changes, then it becomes becomes vapor, then it
goes into the liquid. But according to mainstream Christianity, the Trinity is that they are co
eternal and co equal, they utterly coexist.
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Water doesn't utterly coexist with regards of his ice and vapor at the same time, no ice, it turns
into ice because it freezes, then when you heat up a bit, it becomes liquid, then when you heat it a
bit more boiling, it becomes vapor, right that those states don't coexist, right? If I have a cup of
water, you know, this cup of water is liquid. You can't say it's vapor as well, right? You can't say
it's ice now. No, it would change into ice, depending on the conditions that we have. Finally, the
man and I analogy also fails to encompass the doctrine of the Trinity. Why? Because the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit aren't functions because I'm a son, but I'm also a father, right? And I'm also a
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husband. These are functions of who I am. Okay? These are functions. But the Trinity when they say
there is a son, Father, Holy Spirit. It's not just a function. It's a distinct person. There's not a
person Hamza who's just the Son, and a person Hamza who's just the Father, and a person who's just
the husband. No, these are functions of who I am. But according to the Trinity, the son, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all distinct persons, not functions. It is no wonder. The
evangelical scholar Harold Lynn Zell, and seminary Professor Charles Woodbridge wrote the following.
They said, the mind of man cannot fully understand the mystery of Trinity. He who has tried to
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understand the mystery fully will lose his mind. But he will, he would deny the Trinity would lose
his soul. So it's almost saying to us that mainstream Christianity is saying, if you want to be
saved, and go to Paradise, and live a blissful eternal life, you have to believe in something the
mind cannot fathom, cannot comprehend. I would even argue this is a form of injustice, right?
Because God is just, he's fair, he's loving. He's not going to give you some ideas, I impossible to
believe, right? He's gonna say to you, right, you know, if you look at the paradise, you have to
believe that one plus one is equal to five.
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That would be unjust by definition. Now, what's very interesting as well, brothers and sisters, is
that the early church had lots of differences, as we say, in the Islamic tradition, they laugh Yeah,
there was lots of differences. For example, the epi or knights, they believe Jesus was purely human
didn't even believe he was divine. There was a difference in the early period of Christianity. The
urbanites believed that he wasn't divine, he was human,
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used to have the most unites, they believed that Jesus was purely divine and not human at all. So
there was a big difference between the Arabian Nights and the monster nights. Then you have and I'm
gonna try and pronounce this properly. The sub ordination is, the sub ordination is That's the one.
So the sub ordination is they believe Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, but that he was
created by God the Father, thus was not equal to the Father but sub ordinate. to him.
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A very famous, prolific Christian writer in history, wrote over 1000 books, his name was Oregon of
Alexandria, he was also a sub D nation. inist, meaning that Jesus was both human and divine, but he
is subordinate to the Father. Okay, so he's not called equal to the Father. He is subordinate to
him. You don't have to understand this much. You could read the books for yourself. But the point
is, we're just trying to show that in early Christianity,
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there was lots of differences.
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Now, what's very interesting is always that the first three centuries of early Christianity had no
fixed concept of Jesus, either. They didn't have a fixed idea who Jesus was. Now, mainstream
Christianity will basically tell you, yeah, Jesus is the Son of God, and he's got right.
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And he's part of the Trinity. But the first early the period, the
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First three centuries of Christianity, they didn't have that fixed concept. There was lots of
differences going on, for example, a lot of trinitarians a lot of Christians who believe in the
Trinity, they like to quote, early church fathers, and one of the early church fathers is called
Tertullian. Okay. And, you know, they say, Oh, look, he believes in the Trinity, too. But this is
not the case. Because when we examine their writings, for example, if you examine the writings of
Tertullian, we see that he was actually a bit confused, he didn't really believe he didn't really
believe in the Trinity as mainstream Christians believe in the Trinity. This is an early church
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father. So look what he had to say. He said, for the father is the entire substance, but the son is
a derivation and a portion of the whole, as he himself acknowledges, my father is greater than I.
And that's why he basically says in the Psalm, his infinity is described as being a little lower
than the angels. Thus, the father is distinct from the sun, being greater than the sun. So an early
church father to tilian, he basically said that the Father is greater than the son, they're not co
equal, which is mainstream Christianity today.
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And what's interesting, the word Trinity doesn't even exist in the Bible
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doesn't exist. And, you know, it's very clear that the book of Allah subhanho wa Taala, the Quran
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does mention that you shouldn't even mention three, don't say falletta, don't even say three. And
Allah says those people who say God is the third of three, I define the truth, there is only one
God.
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And what's very interesting, from a biblical point of view, it doesn't really make sense, especially
when you study the Bible. And I'm not a huge fan of studying the Bible in detail. Because from the
Islamic and academic perspective, the Bible from my point of view, and I would even argue the
intellectual tradition, even academia, Christians themselves, do professors, they would argue that
the Bible doesn't have what you call textual integrity from a historical point of view. We can't
truly say, this is actually the Gospels, and I'm going to discuss this in a few minutes. But
nevertheless, it's very interesting that Jesus actually preached how he'd, according to the Bible,
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there's an interesting incident in the New Testament. Now,
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it seems that Jesus is affirming the theology of the Jews, which was more closer to oneness more
closer to monotheism, and he said the following
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the most important one, asked Jesus, okay, because he was asked which of the commandments is the
most important? And Jesus said, the most important one answer Jesus is this, here, O Israel, the
Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, love thy neighbor as
yourself, there is no commandment greater than these. Well said, teacher, the man replied, You are
right in saying that God is one, and there is no other but him, to love Him with all your heart,
with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is
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more important, all burn offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he
said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And from then on, and from then on, no one
dare to ask him any more questions. This is in Mark 1228 to 34. Now, isn't it interesting that Jesus
didn't say, oh, by the way, Jewish man, what do you mean by God? Is this Triune God, the son, the
Father, and the Holy Spirit isn't the whole point of Revelation, and the whole point of a messenger
and a prophet like Jesus to clarify misunderstandings, to elucidate right to bring into light to
show clear guidance, because the Jewish man here, who was in this dialogue, he had the assumption of
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the Jewish God, which was one no Trinity, purely one who Allah who I had, say allies, uniquely one,
right. Jesus, obviously knew this.
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Now, if Jesus adopted the Trinitarian perspective of God, he said, ha, you've misunderstood me here.
What you mean by God is actually the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, but he didn't do this.
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So let's now talk about Isa alayhis, salam, Jesus man, messenger Messiah from a Quranic point of
view. Now obviously the crann a lot of panel what are the commands Muslims to love, and to respect
all the prophets and we don't make any difference?
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Tensions between them. Allah says in the Quran in chapter two verse 136. So you believe his say, we
believe in Allah in God, and in what was sent down to us and what was sent down to Abraham, and it's
my own is it Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and what was given to Moses, Jesus, and all the
prophets by the Lord, we make no distinction between any of them and we devote if we devote
ourselves to Him to Allah subhanho wa Taala. Now, it's very interesting that the Quran mentioned
Jesus, how many times 25 times Mohammed Hassan, I believe is mentioned only four times four or five
times Isa Alayhi. Salaam is mentioned 25 times he has special names, epithets, Allah, the Spirit of
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God kalama wa, the Word of God, Jesus is a very special place in the Islamic tradition.
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And there are some cinematic similarities, but lots of deviations to which we're going to explain.
So let's focus on the birth of Jesus, as you know, a lot of pan of water that says, the angel said,
Mary, God gives you news of a word from him. His name would be the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, who
be held in honor in this world, and the next, who be one of those brought near to Allah near to God.
And Mary obviously reacts with surprise, because she was chased. She was a pious woman. And that's
why it was going to be a miraculous birth. She said, My Lord, how can I have a son, when no man had
touched me. And the angel said, this is how Allah This is how God creates what he will. When he has
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ordained something, he says B, and it is B and it is. And as you know, he's Allah, He cinemas a
child perform miracles in the cradle, be full of wisdom and righteousness in the eyes of Allah in
the eyes of God. As Allah says, In the third chapter, verses 46 to 48, He will speak to people in
his infancy, and in his adulthood, he will be one of the righteous, He will teach him the Scripture
and wisdom, the Torah and the Gospel. Now, when
00:32:14 -->
00:32:18
Mary Alayhi Salam became pregnant, she withdrew.
00:32:19 -->
00:33:04
And she withdrew herself from the people. She knew that they wouldn't believe her. And because she
was pious, she couldn't deal with the shame. She didn't know what to do. Because people were slander
her and accuse her of having committed fornication. And Allah says in chapter 19, and so it was
ordained, she conceived him, she was drew to a distant place. And when she was in labor, she was in
so much pain and utter despair. Then Allah through His mercy gave her sustenance, as Allah says, in
the same chapter, and when the pains of childbirth drove her to cling to the trunk of the palm tree,
she exclaimed, I wish had been dead and forgotten long before all of this, but a voice cry to her
00:33:04 -->
00:33:16
from below. Do not worry, your Lord has provided a stream at your feet. If you shake the trunk of
the palm tree towards you, it will deliver fresh, ripe dates for you.
00:33:18 -->
00:33:39
This reminds me of my wife, you know, delivered my first son. And we had a lot of algebra dates,
because these were the apparently the dates of Mary alehissalaam. And, you know, she's getting all
this pain and trauma. It was like four hour labor. And she's so strong. She didn't eat the dates. I
00:33:40 -->
00:34:17
was so worried. You know, this reminds me, I read a whole book, like every single one and she didn't
have anything. Yeah. So parlamento. Bless our sisters because Beth Allahu Akbar, Allah is greater
you take your hat off to women off the bat, or something. Yeah. You know, that's why I really
believe that. I know, sometimes I don't show it. But I really believe that women have a higher
status in Islam than men, because they're the, the other first teachers of the scholars, and then
the first protectors of the people that protect us, right? So what higher status, you know, there's
no other higher status, you know, from that point of view. So
00:34:19 -->
00:34:59
let's continue. So she took the dates she had sustenance from her Lord. And then God informed the
ally informed her that when she returns to her people, she would not speak a word to them, she's not
allowed to speak a word to them. So Allah said, So eat, drink, be glad, and see to anyone. You may
see. I have vowed to the Lord of mercy to abstain from conversation. I would not talk to anybody
today. So after giving birth to Jesus, many Mary returned to her people, and they confirmed her
fears by implying that she committed fornication should they like seeing married Look what you've
done. You know what's happened? You've had a baby, you must have committed funny
00:35:00 -->
00:35:20
So what did she do? She basically points to the chart. She went back and this What are they saying
in chapter 19? She went back to her people carrying the child. And they said, Mary, you have done an
evil terrible thing, sister of Aaron, your father was an evil man. Your mother was not unchaste. So
she pointed at him.
00:35:21 -->
00:36:03
At the child, he said to his salon, they said, How can we converse with an infant, he can't talk.
And this was one of the miracles of Isa Allah. He said, I'm in East LA Islam said the following
beautiful words. Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me scripture, and made me a
prophet. And he has blessed me wherever I am, and has commanded me to pray, to give arms as long as
I live, to cherish my mother. He did not make me domineering or graceless. Peace was on me the day I
was born, and will be on me the day I die. And the day I am raised to life again.
00:36:05 -->
00:36:19
And we know he sadly his son did marry, marry many miracles in chapter three of the Quran. He said,
Elisa Lam said, I will heal the blind and the leper and bring the dead back to life with God's
permission. So this was the reality of Isa alayhi salam.
00:36:20 -->
00:36:21
Now,
00:36:23 -->
00:36:27
interestingly, the nature of Isa alayhis salaam was one of a man
00:36:29 -->
00:37:15
that had a message, and that message wasn't unique to him. It was part of the Prophetic Mission,
that every single Prophet came here to teach us about coheed, the oneness of Allah, the fact that we
must direct all our acts of worship to Allah alone, that the thing we must know the most is Allah.
The thing that we must love the most is Allah, the thing that we want to obey the most is Allah. And
the thing that we direct all acts of worship to the most is Allah are the only acts of worship
though that we manifest is to Allah alone. This is the essence of tawheed. And this is where all the
prophets came to teach us about which frees us from the darkness and the slavery of worshipping
00:37:15 -->
00:37:45
other than Allah subhanho wa Taala, other than your Creator and maker. Now, I'm going to move now on
the crucifixion. Now, the reason I want to do that, because now we've understood the contrast
between the two different conceptions of God, the Christian conception, the Islamic conception, the
understanding of Jesus, we understanding what is the most spiritual was the most rational, truly,
it's the Islamic conception. But I want to move now on the crucifixion, because the crucifixion
00:37:46 -->
00:38:37
get some kind of justification from mainstream Christianity and Christian scholars, based on based
on the idea of the theology of giving blood, right? Because a lot of Christian scholars go to the
Old Testament and they say, Look, man, human beings, right? They have inherent sin. Because Adam
alayhis, salaam, okay. And his wife, you know, they sinned, and we have to carry the burden of their
sins. So man is inherently not good. By inherently is born into sin. And the only way because God is
so holy, the only way to cleanse yourself from this sin is with blood. Right? Now, contrast this
with the Islamic point of view, the Islamic tradition says that everyone's born in goodness, the
00:38:37 -->
00:39:07
idea of fitrah, whoever they are, if they're born in China, if the born in Australasia, even if they
were born on the moon, they have a fitrah and innate disposition, and that disposition is goodness,
is based on goodness, not an evil. So a birth of a child from a theological point of view, according
to Islam is good news is something positive by a birth of a child from a Christian point of view.
What I mean by Christian is, the theological point of view is that he's born into sin.
00:39:09 -->
00:39:59
And this is why they refer to different aspects of the Bible. For example, in Romans 623, it says,
For the wages of sin, for to pay sin, right to remove sin, is death. Also in Hebrews 922, it says,
in fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of
blood, there is no forgiveness. Again, in Romans 512, it says, Therefore, just as sin entered the
world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all
sinned. Now, the solution according to New Testament is as follows that Jesus died on the cross to
undo Adams original sin and therefore everybody's sin, as you see in Romans five
00:40:00 -->
00:40:46
17 it says For if, by the trespass of one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more
with those who receive God's abundant provision of grace, and have the gift of righteousness reign
in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. But the same very important here that we need to
understand your all we said about our last names and attributes in the beginning, what are they? We
have a maximum perfect theology. There are not there's no deficiency and no flaw, the concept of
blood atonement, the concept of requiring blood, okay, in order to gain forgiveness, this concept
itself is number one, against the mercy and forgiveness of Allah, the fact that he's alright man.
00:40:46 -->
00:40:47
That's what they're trying to say.
00:40:49 -->
00:41:26
If they claim that in order for us to be forgiven, right, because we're carrying the burden of not
our own sins, but also the sins of Adam, the only way to be cleansed of that sin is through blood.
This isn't a direct contradiction to the concept of mercy from a maximally perfect theological point
of view, the fact that God is supposed to have perfect names and attributes were no deficiency on
floor, why would he want blood? Right? Further, this goes against his names and attributes of him
being the just because this is fair, that mean you are carrying the sins of somebody else.
00:41:27 -->
00:41:41
Is that fairness? Is that fairness by by the very definition of what it means to be Justin fair, so
the concept of blood atonement in Christian theology is number one unjust. And number two, is
antithetical to mercy.
00:41:42 -->
00:42:02
So this is repeat this. So in mainstream Christianity, they basically say, Adam sinned, we're
carrying his sin. That's unjust, because why are you carrying the sin of somebody else? In order to
cleanse yourself from your sins and carrying somebody else's sins, you need blood? So that is unjust
and not very merciful?
00:42:03 -->
00:42:45
Allah says in the Quran, no. So laden bears the load of another chapter 35, verse 18. If you look at
the Tafseer of ebbing, kefir, he says that no human being is going to carry the burden of someone
else's sin, someone else's mistakes. This is unjust. And we know this as parents, you know, when
kids sometimes learning to walk and they bump into the chair, what do you do you go? No tea chair,
don't we? Right? You don't go to the kitchen and go into the fridge and say, no tea fridge, right?
It just doesn't work. That doesn't make sense in the in the concept of justice, right? Imagine going
to a court of law. And the judge says Hamza, you're in prison for 30 years, why haven't done
00:42:45 -->
00:43:26
anything I know. But some guy down your road, he killed three people. So you're in prison for 30
years, but I didn't do it. Right, I'm carrying the burden of someone else. And that's inherently
unjust. Forget, from a spiritual point of view, from a philosophical point of view, it's unjust by
the very definition. So for us to get the blame of someone else's sin is unjust, and Allah is not
unjust. So just by the very concept of who God is, we reject this blood atonement, and we reject the
carrying sin of somebody else. Also, if one says that you have to basically have blood, right, in
order to basically remove our sins.
00:43:27 -->
00:43:38
This is not very merciful, right? You think God is the Most Merciful? God is forgiving and loving
even according to Christianity, but yet he wants blood.
00:43:39 -->
00:44:26
And what he did he sacrifice his son, who's supposed to be God sacrificed himself in some kind of
paradoxical way and and tortured himself. Which is sounds quite weird, right? Does that make sense?
What does the law say? And you know, and sometimes other traditions think that they have a monopoly
on spirituality. How's your relationship with God? It's very good. Thank you very much. I don't need
blood. Right? What does the law say in the Quran, say, if you love God, then follow me referring to
Mohammed follow Mohammed Hassan, and Allah will love you and forgive your sins, because the person
Sonam is a rock miser, mercy to the world's. All we have to do as Muslims is stand and pray and just
00:44:26 -->
00:44:39
raise your hand say, yo, Rob, forgive me and be sincere, Allah will forgive you, even if you made it
people, lacks the forgiveness of Allah subhanho wa Taala. This is our rub. This is our Lord.
00:44:40 -->
00:44:43
Our Lord is not a lot of blood. Our Lord is a lot of love.
00:44:45 -->
00:44:56
A lot of Rama, excessive Rama. Allah Buddha means excessively loving that special love that he has,
and His reima His loving mercy encompasses all things.
00:44:58 -->
00:44:59
All you have to do is turn
00:45:00 -->
00:45:27
Back to Allah subhanho wa Taala you've been drinking all your life, you've been hitting all your
life, you've been stealing all your life. The minute you do Toba, you do repentance say I'm, I feel
bad, I feel remorse. But I know your mercy is greater than my mistakes. And you ask Allah for
forgiveness, Allah forgives you. This is mercy. This is forgiveness, not wanting to sacrifice and
torture somebody else.
00:45:28 -->
00:45:31
In the case of biblical Christianity, torturing God Himself.
00:45:33 -->
00:45:40
This is antithetical to mercy and forgiveness. Now, I want to read something that's not actually
raised in the book.
00:45:41 -->
00:45:43
Which is a bit interesting.
00:45:44 -->
00:45:50
You know, in the Bible, it says that God loves human beings that he sacrificed his own son, right?
00:45:52 -->
00:45:59
to basically free us from sin. And the ones who asked a Christian. Well, that's very interesting.
isn't me being a Muslim also sinful?
00:46:00 -->
00:46:07
Yeah. But didn't God sacrifice your son for my sin as well being a Muslim? So I don't have to be a
Christian
00:46:08 -->
00:46:52
at all, but you have to accept the gift of the sacrifice? Well, that's very interesting, because
there's no intrinsic value of the sacrifice, then what is valuable is me just accepting it, which
changes the whole theological paradigm. Do you see? That's something interesting to think about? So
last few points. So we spoke about, we've alluded to the crucifixion in terms of blood at home
atonement. But let's now really think about is the crucifixion an indisputable fact, this is very
important for us to understand. Now, from a historical point of view, the only kind of narratives we
have are the eyewitness testimonies of the Gospels, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and john. Now,
00:46:53 -->
00:46:58
this is not divine revelation. This is not something that is 100%.
00:47:00 -->
00:47:05
In terms of it's not 100%. It's, what kind of word should I use?
00:47:06 -->
00:47:33
It hasn't convinced the mind, right? It's just based on eyewitness testimony, by an orphan
eyewitness testimony to be valid, especially in the context of writing things down, you have to have
at least three things, know who they are their identities, know the content of the writings, and the
date of their writings, by I'm telling you, when you study the Gospels, you don't know their full
identities, I believe we don't even have the second names.
00:47:35 -->
00:47:48
We don't even know the contents of the writings, which I'm going to discuss in a little while, where
even though their date of their writings, some of the most earliest manuscripts are like around 200
or 150 years after the so called
00:47:49 -->
00:48:29
crucifixion of Jesus. So we don't have the dates. We don't even have the identities. We don't have
external biographies of these people that are even robust enough for us to really say, yes, these
people were these people, right? So from a rational point of view, you can never accept these
testimonies, and not for testimony so great, like someone being crucified who's supposed to be the
Son of God, right? We don't have the identities, the content of the right the content of the
writings, or even the date of the writings. Let's focus now just on the content of the writings. And
one would argue, well, we have the Gospels, bro. Hamza, we have the Gospels, you know, the writings
00:48:29 -->
00:48:43
are there. But are we sure that that is what they wrote? Because if you study, the history of the
Bible, is a lot of confusion from an academic point of view. A few points for me too.
00:48:44 -->
00:49:27
For me to plant in your heart and mind, you'd have to research this yourself further because of
time. The first point is this, that the different churches of Christianity disagree with the Bible
is the Greek church, the Syriac church, the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church, the Coptic
church, the Anglican Church. They don't have an agreement on what the Bible is, for example, the
Protestants have six licks less books, I believe in the Catholics have six extra books, or whatever
the case may be there is kind of differing amongst them. Also, the church fathers never saw the
Gospels as authoritative. These include Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Papyrus of hierapolis.
00:49:29 -->
00:49:59
Now a noted authority in New Testament criticism, brutes Metzger, who's also a Christian. He
comments on Clement of Rome, one of the church fathers, he said, he knows several of the Paul's
epistles and values them highly for their content. The same can be said of the Epistle of Hebrews of
the Hebrews, which he is well acquainted. Although these writings oversee possessor for Clement,
considerable significant he never refers to them as
00:50:00 -->
00:50:19
authoritative scripture. Bruce Metzger Professor Bruce Metzger also says when he's commenting on
Ignatius, another church father, he certainly knew a collection of Paul's epistles, including one
Corinthians effizienz. Romans galentines
00:50:20 -->
00:50:54
Philippians, I'm probably pronouncing is really wrong, because I'm being a Greek way. Yeah,
Colossians and Thessalonians. Right. It is probable that he knew the Gospels, according to Matthew
and john, and perhaps also Luke, there is no evidence that he regarded any of these gospels or
pistols. As scripture, fundamentally, and Bruce Metzger, Professor Bruce Metzger makes a beautiful
point. He says, the criterion for canonicity meaning the criterion for saying these books or the
Bible was what there's only one main criteria, who could guess what it was.
00:50:58 -->
00:51:25
The main criteria for what was going to become the Bible was that these books had to agree with the
current at that time church teachings. Do you see the big circular argument there isn't the whole
point of canonizing a book to give you the teachings for the church. But what the church did is that
their criteria was that these books are going to be the Bible or guidance, if they already agree
with us. And that's a huge problem.
00:51:28 -->
00:51:29
So
00:51:30 -->
00:51:58
what's very interesting, the Catholic Encyclopedia also says there is no clear cut canon anyway. It
says the idea of a complete and clear cut canon of the New Testament, existing from the beginning,
that is from the Apostolic times has no foundation in history. The canon of the New Testament, like
that of the old is the result of a development of a process at once stimulated by disputes with
doubters, both within and without the church and
00:52:00 -->
00:52:33
regarded by certain and * by certain, obscurities, and natural hesitations, and which did not
reach its final term into the dogmatic definition of the Tridentine Council. Also, you have many
scribal errors, if you look and search for yourself, the kind of facsimiles or the pictures of the
scribal errors of the development of the Bible, because you have to copy the Bible, right? There was
no printing press. There are some margins in the footnotes, the scribes are debating each other. And
one scribe says, You fool,
00:52:35 -->
00:52:52
leave the original reading. I know it sounds really funny, but you have it is there. Also there are
many parts omitted that are now not considered even part of the Bible. Because it for example, Mark
1619 to 20. It's not considered a later edition, it was added, it wasn't part of the original.
00:52:53 -->
00:53:16
So from this point of view, how can you even start to believe in the crucifixion, because the only
evidence we have from a historical perspective, rule historical evidence is the Bible. But does the
Bible satisfy intellectually? The mind concerning believing it as reports of eyewitness testimonies?
I don't think so.
00:53:17 -->
00:54:00
I don't think so at all. So, what's very interesting as well as like even many early groups of
Christianity in the first and second centuries, they even denied the crucifixion of Jesus. Isn't
that interesting? For example, we had the bezieht idealliance, right, there was a first century
scholar called beza de buddies, right? Probably pronounced that wrong as well, and his followers who
are called the Bezier, aliens, they believe that Jesus was saved from the crucifixion. And another
person Simon of serine, was crucified in his place, which is what you may argue, some scholars
interpret the verse of the Quran, when it was made to appear, it was like Jesus, right? Some like
00:54:00 -->
00:54:06
even a bass rajala and many other element they say there was a replacement. Okay, so that's an
interesting view.
00:54:07 -->
00:54:51
Also, you have the Philadelphians. They basically also seem to have rejected the crucifixion,
because Ignatius, one of the Church Fathers writes a letter to them, to basically tell them to come
back to what he considered orthodoxy, right. You also had the trillions. Again, they seem to have
believed that the death of Jesus was only in appearance and Ignatius again, writes them another
letter. So in the early period was a lot of difference in differences from that point of view. I
want to make a very important point. The reason we believe that Jesus wasn't crucified, he was made
to appear that way, okay. And Jesus is alive is because the Quran says so that's valid evidence for
00:54:51 -->
00:54:59
a Muslim Why? Because we have evidence why the Quran is from Allah. Another book written by a
beloved I was curious could eternal
00:55:00 -->
00:55:28
Challenge, a journey through the miraculous Quran if you go to one reason.org, you could put in your
email and download it for free. We even have prints available. The second edition is out now. And
that book articulates good reasons why the Quran is from Allah, it's preserved. It has miraculous
features concerning its structure, its linguistic miracle, its information, etc, etc. So since we
could show the Quran is from Allah, the what it says about Jesus is going to be true anyway.
00:55:30 -->
00:55:49
So what's the summary? The summary is brothers, brothers and sisters that Isa Alayhi Salaam was
ascetic, he was pious. He was a man of a lie man of God. He wasn't good. And he called people to the
worship of God, to the worship of the Creator, not to the worship of creation.
00:55:50 -->
00:55:56
And the Quran makes this apparent. In chapter 19, verse 30, to 35.
00:55:57 -->
00:56:19
Jesus said, I am the servant of Allah of God, he has granted me the scripture made me a prophet made
me blessed wherever I may be, he commanded me to pray, to give charity as long as I live to chase my
mother, he did not make me domineering or graceless. Peace was mean the day I was born, and would be
on the day I die. And the day I'm raised to life again,
00:56:21 -->
00:57:11
such was Jesus son of Mary. This is a statement of truth about which they are in doubt, it would not
be fit got to have a son. He's far above that. When he decreased something, he says only be, and it
is. And essentially, he said, I'm Jesus. His main point was to heed the oneness of God, the oneness
of the Creator, the oneness of the creator's divinity, as the Quran says, in 4378 64, that Jesus
said, Indeed, God, Allah is my Lord, and your Lord, so worship Him. That is a straight path.
Brothers and sisters, just to completely end, I really want you to understand that most Christians
don't even know this, okay? I want you to introduce the book to you, that has far more beautiful
00:57:11 -->
00:57:26
content and lots of references, I want you to give you the idea that we have a very strong
intellectual tradition concerning the conception of Jesus, that spiritual, intuitive, natural,
profound, and in line with the basic understanding of the Creator.
00:57:28 -->
00:57:52
And I want you to understand that most Christians, they're deep spiritual human beings. Okay. I had
an interfaith, I think, a few years ago in Leicester, and I had a very loving time, I felt a lot of
love, okay. And this is how we should be to our brothers and sisters in humanity as well. And the
reason they believe in Jesus in this way, because that's all they know. That's all they know.
00:57:53 -->
00:58:39
And they believe they have a relationship and they feel this natural fit three, you know, the innate
disposition, connection with something and they want to manifest the instinct of worship, and all
they have is this, the kind of mainstream Christian understanding of Jesus, what we need to do is
show them they could keep this love for Jesus. They could keep the love. And then wasallam come
welcome. That love you must have, but now understand Jesus for who He really was. And understand God
in the way that God wants to be understood concerning his unique uniqueness and oneness. You don't
even have to go for the stuff I did today. Okay, it's just just in case you have one of the
00:58:39 -->
00:58:41
Christian missionaries on your doorstep. Yeah.
00:58:42 -->
00:59:22
And it's a really fascinating book by generally speaking for the alarm for the masses, just be a
loving human being, respect them, even if they say, Oh, I had a dream of Jesus. And it's so
spiritual. And that's why don't negate them. You know, when you negate someone's spiritual
experience is equivalent of negating them. Say, I agree, you may have had an experience, but let me
show you how you could interpret that experience. Do you see, give them the reference point, show
them that the real way of looking at their experiences in their life is through the lenses of
oneness. coheed so our advice to the brothers and sisters that when you talk to Christians, be
00:59:22 -->
00:59:59
loving as you should be, be caring as you should be, be fair as you should be, have a clock others
have forbearance if you get harmed, don't respond with evil respond with goodness, right? That's the
key attribute of the prophets very famous story of the Jewish man. He came to the process some, the
person owed him some money, Jewish man dragged him by the neck left a mark one of the Sahaba one of
the companions wanted to sort him out. The Prophet stopped him. And what did he say? You know, we
expect you something better from you, that you teach him to ask for his money nicely and you teach
me to give on time forbearance even
01:00:00 -->
01:00:30
Though he was attacked, and this Jewish man became a Muslim, why? Because he wanted that sign he
there was one remaining sign that he didn't see in the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And that
sign was a sign of forbearance as Allah says, respond to evil with that, which is good. Let me end
with a funny story. There was a brother who adopted the Sunnah, the prophetic way of tolerance.
tolerating anyone's belief, atheist, Christian, whoever we are. Respect, right, being fair.
01:00:32 -->
01:00:41
All of these values that everyone agrees with generally speaking, you know, give people the you
know, you don't you don't there's no compulsion in religion, give people the liberties. Now,
01:00:43 -->
01:00:53
he was having a stall outside stretch outside Stratford shopping center, man of Sunday, you know,
not some other clothes, Sunday here, which which counts the most right?
01:00:55 -->
01:00:57
And some lady
01:00:58 -->
01:01:00
came up to him and spat on his face.
01:01:01 -->
01:01:39
He responded to you without which is better. What do you do, he kept on smiling, as if nothing
happened, smiling at her, pick up some tissue wipe to wipe his face. Then he got another Titian gave
it to her because she had some of her dribble on her face. And she took it as she walked off. After
a few weeks or months, she came back to the same store. She became a Muslim, respond to evil that
which is better. And the enmity between two people it's as if the now will become like bosom
intimate friends. And you know what happened after a few more months or years. They got married.
01:01:41 -->
01:01:45
So sisters, the advice here is if you want a good husband spit on him first.
