Search for Truth: The
Truth Found
In the name of Allah, the beneficent
the merciful
I was born of staunch Catholic
Christian parents. My father was a preacher who knew the Bible almost by
heart my mother, an orthodox Catholic, would only give us the morning
coffee after her return from Church.
Even from my youngest days, I was made
to memorize certain verses from the Bible.
By the time I had completed the study
of all the four Gospels and knew many important verses, in those four
books, by heart.
My father sometimes took me along with
him when he went to preach, and from the special attention he paid to my
knowing certain controversial points, and his teaching me the methods of
explaining to the others those intricacies, it was quite obvious that he
wanted me to succeed him in his profession. The strong desire of the
paternal love to make me a priest was implemented by educating me with a
detailed knowledge of the Bible and the science of ministering it to
others. By the time I reached the Form IV in school I could preach the
gospels in my own way, supervised by my father. Many senior missionaries
admired my knowledge of the important doctrines of the faith. I passed
the Form VI and joined College. There I came in contact with several
classmates who were Protestants, and some of whom were well versed in
the study of the Protestant Bible.
I often met my Protestant classmates
and discussed matters regarding differences in our faith and the
performance of rituals. There were also some Muslim students, but I met
them only in the play ground as I hated meeting Muslims whom I took to
be dangerous fanatics. By the time I completed the first year in
College, I was sufficiently grounded in the knowledge of the Christian
faith as held by the Catholic Church and had also considerable knowledge
of the Protestant view point. Appreciating this knowledge of the
Catholic faith in my young age I was given a scholarship from the church
funds and in return for the help I received, I was required to receive
special coaching in the guidance of deeper thoughts about certain parts
of the Holy Book, under of the Chief Priest of the Church who loved to
teach me very much and was very intimately attached to me. He used the
special devotional methods of worshiping Jesus and his Holy Mother.
Having appeared in the first group for my intermediate course I used to
sit working at his subjects till late at night.
One night when all were asleep and I
was absorbed in my studies an idea suddenly struck my mind to examine
the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the Basic formula of the Christian
faith. The question, how three different things can be one and the same,
arose in my mind i.e. how anything singularly absolute in its unity with
its indivisible oneness, can ever by itself become divided into three
separate beings with three variant native attributes opposed to each
other justifying the distribution into the three different entities.
My failure to reconcile my belief in
the Trinity with the reasoning of the science of logic, created a mental
restlessness in me. Days passed on and many a time I thought of asking
my father to help me in solving the problem which was puzzling my mind.
But I knew that my father would never appreciate the least doubt in the
dogmatic belief of the Catholic School and my venture to discuss
anything hated by the Catholic faith, would only create further problems
in my domestic life. However, one day when I found my father in a happy
mood, I asked him as to how he would defend the Christian faith in the
Holy Trinity against the attacks from the members of the other religions
of the world. The answer was:
"In matters of faith one has to stop
reasoning. One should belief in the doctrine only by one's heart and
mind."
This reply from my father upset me
further more and disappointed me to a very great extent and all my
thinking got centered in the question which had become a definite
problem to puzzle my mind further and I wondered saying:
"What! Is this the Foundation upon
which is built the huge edifice of the Christian faith? Is the basis of
my own faith only a matter of a blind following of some dictated belief
which can never stand reasoning or the independent scrutiny by the
dispassionate and impartial arguments from the clean conscience?"
I became much worried and made up my
mind to find some arguments to somehow make my much disturbed mind at
least imagine that one could at one and the same time be three different
persons, and the three different persons could at the same time remain
one.
One day our Mathematics Professor was
sitting alone in his room and I got in with his permission and asked him
if he would help me to solve something which to me was an intricate and
a perplexing problem. He very kindly asked me what it was. I told him to
explain to me in what sense one and the same person could be three
different beings, and the same three different beings with their
individual differences could at the same time be the indivisible
absolute one?
The Professor smiled and said:
"Is it that you do not like my stay in
this college?"
I asked him: "Why Sir?"
He said:
"What do you think the college
authorities which are staunch Catholics will do with me, if some one
informs them that I discuss in my private room things opposed to the
Catholic or the Christian faith in general? Will they keep me on the
staff of the College any longer? If you want to discuss anything here,
you may do so but mind you, you must confine your discussion to the
subject of your studies in the College, otherwise you will be doing the
worst harm to me for I will be thrown out of my job."
I felt the truth in his statement and
made an appointment with him to see him the next Sunday at 3.00 pm in
his house.
On Sunday when I met the Professor he
first asked me as to what made me enquire into the Doctrine of Trinity.
I said that I wanted to know how far the doctrine stood to reasoning?
The Professor smiled and said, "Why
don't you ask any one of our priests?"
I said "I have asked them but they say
it is a matter of belief or faith and it should not be subjected to any
logic or philosophy. This has upset me It his has raised the question in
me, if what I believe in, is unreasonable and illogical, why should I
subject myself to any blind following? Is God so unjust and cruel to
expect man to believe in a doctrine about Himself, which no human brain
can ever reasonably conceive? I request you, Sir; to some how give me
some method of arguing out the possibility of such an existence as the
doctrine of Trinity wants us to believe in!"
The professor smiled and said: "My dear
Joseph suppose you want me to prove by some mathematical formula how
water can remain water and at the same time be fire, or how a stone can
be a stone at the same time be water too, how can I do it? I do not
think any sensible man on earth can ever conceive such a possibility.
How the Ever living God who being the Ever living Life itself, can also
at the same time be a mortal i.e. be a man to suffer death at the hands
of the other mortals? And how the same mortal being at the same time
could be the Absolute Immortal God? It is a problem which our priests
want us to believe and we have to merely believe in it and none has any
choice of even questioning the practicability of this inconceivable
dogma."
On hearing the answer I asked him:
"Then, what about you, Sir? Don't you also believe in it?"
He replied: "It is a matter of my own
personal and individual choice and decision. Even if I or the world,
were to believe in such a doctrine the liability still remains for every
believer to answer the question if he or she can prove the doctrine as a
reasonable or practical phenomena."
He went on saying; "The fact is when
God, Whom we believe as One, is Absolutely One Being in His perfect
unity, it means that God is singularly one in natural essence of His
existence, free from any different or variant factors having anything to
do with His pure or Absolute Unity to justify His being The Absolute
One, owing an indivisible existence, by Himself. Division suggests that
the one is not an Absolute One, but a compound of some variants and that
which is a composed being can never be really one in the true meaning of
oneness. And certainly the one dependent in its existence upon its
different components can never be independent in its action, whereas God
is the Absolute One, Independently Omnipotent in His Will and His
Action.
"Besides how can any three which are
three separate beings, with three variations justify their being three
separate entities, remain there separately as they are and at the same
time by themselves lose their different individual native properties
differentiating them from each other, and become conceivably the
absolute indivisible one, without the least variation in the essential
oneness.
"An Absolute one must be totally
independent in its existence, Mr. Joseph, as it impossible to reason out
the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The science of Mathematics or any
other science which any human genius can ever conceive, until the end of
time, can never solve this inconceivable riddle."
He continued:
"The only thing is that we, Christians,
are shut out of the vast sources of knowledge about the truth and of the
higher factors in matters of religion which are available outside our
own fold, by damning every non-Christian as the devil's work. We
Christians, Mr. Joseph, in our madness to swell up our ranks have played
such a disgraceful role that a great head like Sir Dennison Ross had to
helplessly disclose the truth about this in his foreword to the
translation of the Quran by George Sale."
I was amazed to hear the arguments of
the Professor who was himself known as a Catholic, and at the same time
I was very much encouraged to know that my doubt about the
unreasonability of the doctrine of Trinity was something which had made
a highly educated and enlightened mind like the Professor of Mathematics
also to enquire into it. I was much benefited by the discussion with the
Professor as I came to know arguments justifying the doubt created in my
mind.
My study of the matter in the Islamic
Literature, and the translation of the Quran opened my eyes to many
great and very important factors that effect human life on earth. Once I
visited the Professor in his house and to my further amazement I found
him possessing a great amount of literature on Islam.
I asked him:
"May I know, Sir, if you have embraced
the faith of the Muslims?"
He replied:
"It is a question yet to be decided.
You do not worry yourself about my personal choice. I, for the time
being, want to be known as no other than a Catholic Christian. I will
tell you later."
I took the copy of the translation of
the Quran by George Sale and read the introduction by Sir E. Dennison
Ross. The introduction needs to be read with special attention. Sir Ross
says:
"For many centuries the acquaintance
which the majority of Europeans possessed of Muhammadanism was based
almost entirely on distorted reports of fanatical Christians which led
to the discrimination of a multitude of gross calumnies. What was good
in Muhammadanism was entirely ignored and what was not good in the eyes
of Europe was exaggerated or misinterpreted.
"The unity of God and that the
simplicity of his creed was probably a more potent factor in the spread
of Islam than the sword of the Ghaziz." (G. Sale's translation of the
Koran - Introduction).
This statement of the great Christian
scholar of international repute, created in me the thirst to know the
original teachings of Islam, especially about the Islamic conception of
God.
About four years passed away, and by
this time I knew the contents of the Quran. Many things had arrested my
special attention. I had discussed many doubtful points with the
Professor whom I found to have read the Quran several times with a
better and more critical view. I was now longing to meet some Muslim
scholar to cross-examine him about certain doubts about the Islamic
faith.
Once I thought of Hinduism but what I
saw daily with my own eyes, curses of untouchability and the
reservations of the caste system prevalent before us, and besides
everything else, the idol worship and the observance of innumerable
rituals did not prompt me to take up any enquiry into the tenets, the
practice of which manifested in the daily life of the millions of Hindus
living with us. I could never understand the superiority exclusively and
arbitrarily claimed for the members of certain castes, simply because
they had accidentally been born in those folds. I had seen with my own
eyes how the people belonging to certain castes are imagined as lower in
the society and are treated as the untouchables, not allowed even to
enter into the Hindu temples. I had seen these poor souls being
prohibited even to take drinking water from the wells reserved for the
superior classes.
I met several Brahmin Pandits but none
of them could answer any one of my objections against the several Hindu
theories regarding the authorities of the hundreds of gods and goddesses
and the observance of the rituals which did not appeal to me in the
least.
The havoc in the social life played by
Hinduism dividing humanity into castes and sub-castes and the
unreasonable superiority of one caste over the other, is itself so much
repulsive that none would like to take any trouble of executing any
studies about the doctrines of the faith.
While resenting the caste system and
the sectarian segregation in the Hindu folds, I was automatically
reminded of the similar restrictions amongst Christians. Caste hatred
has been sunk so deep in the minds of the Hindus that even after
entering Christianity they are unable to overcome the complex.
I asked myself:
"Why criticize other people and their
belief when the religion which I myself belong to, has in it the
sectarian segregation of the Brahmin Christian, the Naidu Christian, the
Chuckli Christian and similar sectarian differences, having full sway
over the social order? Are not churches in Christendom owned exclusively
for the members of particular sects? Are there not churches belonging to
a particular sect which cannot be used by the people of the other sect?
Has not Christianity failed to unite mankind into one human society? Did
Jesus preach all these differences and dissensions which we the
Christians have innovated? Is it not then that we are far away from the
original objects of the Mission of Jesus Christ?"
Against the irreconcilable differences
and the innumerable dissensions of the social order in the folds of
Hinduism and Christianity, I was very much impressed by the genuine and
the real brotherhood practiced day and night among the Muslims. I found
that a Muslim mosque is a mosque belonging to every one who calls
himself a Muslim and that there is no reservation of seats in the mosque
or any sectarian segregation in any of the Muslim places of worship. I
saw with my own eyes, Muslims of all ranks, all social and economic
status, of different complexions, of various nationalities, all standing
in one row, turning towards one direction, praying to one God, in one
language, and immediately after the prayer, shaking hands with each
other. Brotherhood or social equality claimed more in theory by the
other schools of thought in the world, I found it to be an ever
experienced, and a living reality in the daily life of the Islamic
folds.
One day I was informed by the Professor
who by this time had become an intimate friend of mine that a Muslim
scholar was to deliver some talks in English on the life of the Prophet
of Islam in a Hall near the Big Juma Mosque, under the auspices of the
Muslim Youth Association of Trichinopoly Town. My Professor and I, both
attended the three talks and met the Lecturer who was an old friend of
the Professor. We had a heart to heart talk with the Lecturer about
several important topics. The Lecturer presented to me a few more back
numbers of the magazine 'The Peace Maker.'
And as for Ishmael I have heard thee, Behold, I have blessed
him and will make him fruitful, and I will multiply him
exceedingly, Twelve Princes shall he beget and I will make him a
great nation. Gen. 17:20 |
|
During my meeting with the Muslim
Lecturer I asked him if he would kindly answer some questions for my own
information. He said:
"I will most willingly do it."
I put the following questions which he
very cheerfully answered:
"What proofs have you besides the Quran
to establish that Muhammad was truly a Prophet of God?"
He answered: "Have your own Bible with
you, I said, "Yes."
He took the following verses and read
them to me one after another:
The Acts. 3
Verses: 22 "For Moses truly said unto
the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise unto you of your
brethern, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he
shall say unto you."
Verses: 23 "And it shall come to pass,
that every soul, which will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed
from among the people."
Verses: 24 "Yea! And all the prophets
from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have
likewise foretold of these days."
The Acts. 7
Verses: 37 "This is that Moses, which
said unto the children of Israel, A Prophet shall the Lord raise up unto
you of your brethern, like unto me; him shall ye hear."
John 14 Jesus says:
Verses: 16 "I will pray the Father, and
he shall give another comforter - that he may abide with you forever."
16:12 "I have yet many things to say
unto you, but ye can not bear them now."
16:13 "Howbeit, when he the Spirit of
truth, is come, he will guide you unto all truth for he shall not speak
of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; he will
show you things to come."
I read the passages which I had already
gone through several times before, but this time the perfect confidence
with which the Lecturer asked me to read the verses from my own sacred
scriptures in support of his claim, threw a new light upon them for me
to understand the matter dispassionately. Yet I replied:
"But the prophecy is about the advent
of Jesus?"
He smiled and said:
"You read the verse again! Does not the
verse say that God will raise a Prophet like unto Moses" i.e. He will be
a man born of a father and a mother as was born Moses; whereas Jesus was
born only of a mother. Besides, the Prophet promised by God must be a
man like Moses but you yourself call Jesus as the son of God.
Moses was a law giving Prophet and the
one like him must also be a law-giver, whereas Jesus was only a
law-abider, following the law or the Ten Commandments already introduced
through Moses. Besides, one must betray his common sense as well as his
learning to say that, I and He, the two different person i.e. The First
and the Third person mean the same, or the one who departs prophesying
about the advent of some one else, to be one and the same."
The argument was quite reasonable and
unbreakable.
Then I asked the Lecturer:
"Do you not believe in Jesus as the son
of God? Cannot Jesus be God himself in the form of a man?"
The Lecturer smiled and very cheerfully
replied.
"Can there be a son to any one without
a wife, my friend? Can anyone, or you yourself, who believes in the
sonship of Jesus, at any time sensibly imagine Virgin Marry to have been
used by God as a wife was done to conceive an issue? Let us seek
protection of God against any such devilish straying of our minds.
Sonship, if used in the Bible, can be used only to mean a creature or
the one who has received life from God. Otherwise what do you say about
Jesus addressing himself as a son of man.
Luke 7:34 "The son of man is come
eating and drinking and ye say, behold a gluttenous man, and a wine
biber, a friend of publicans and sinners."
Luke 9:26 "The son of man be ashamed."
"Jesus addressed God as his father and
also as our father which means that God is taken as the father of Jesus
as much as He is the father (or the Creator) of any one of us, and hence
Jesus' sonship can mean in the sense of a creature of God, the term son
of God used by Jesus can be used only in sense of a servant of God - as
Jesus himself refers to himself as God's servant. This fact is testified
by the Verses by which every prophet of God until Adam has been termed
as the son of God in Luke 3rd Chapter in verses from to 30 Jesus is
called as the son of Joseph and the genealogy of Joseph is traced to
Adam and Adam is called the son of God. Read the 30th verse of the same
chapter."
Luke 3:37 "Which was the son of Enos,
which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son
of God."
(These ready answers from the Bible
created a very deep impression upon my mind about the mount of
comparative study the Muslims do and how strong and reasonable they are
in their faith about Unity of God. One can say that the faith of the
Muslims is not a matter of mere blind following of any prescribed belief
in unreasonable dogmas but it is the result of a sincere comparative
study of the various schools of though.)
I asked the Lecturer:
"Do you Muslims study every other
religion before you embrace Islam?"
The lecturer replied:
"No. Even as we remain Muslim, born of
Muslim parents, we have been commanded by God to compare and contrast
the truth, i.e. Islam, with every other faith and then own for ourselves
a belief or conviction of our own which alone shall be acceptable to God
as mere blind following of any particular doctrine, be that from our own
parents, will not be of any credit to such a believer. Read what the
Holy Quran enjoins upon those who have already professed Islam as their
faith merely by heredity.
I asked:
"Do you believe in the Holy Bible as a
Heavenly Book or not?"
In reply to my question the Lecturer
requested me to answer the following questions:
1). "Is the Bible, which is in your
hands, the book which Jesus wrote as a scripture revealed by God or to
be called the book of his own?"
I had to say, "No."
2). "Did Jesus order or desire at any
time in his life to write anything on his behalf?"
"No."
3). "Was this Bible which is in your
hands written during the time of Jesus?"
"No."
4). "Was this Bible which is in your
hands today written immediately after the departure of Jesus?"
"No."
"Then" he said, "Please read page 17 in
'The Founder of Christianity and His Religion' published by the
Christian Literature Society, Madras. It is said in the Book:
The whole Bible contains sixty six
books written by forty different authors over a space of about fifteen
centuries.
It is clearly said in the book that:
'Jesus Christ himself wrote nothing.'
Oral teaching was for several years -
the only means employed in the spread of Christianity. It was for the
guidance of those young converts, that the earliest writings of the New
Testament were composed."
The same book further discloses that:
"They were probably written about
twenty years after the death of Christ."
On page 18 it is stated:
"The Gospels do not give a complete
history of the Life of Christ, they are rather memoirs."
I said:
'But the Bible is the word of God
inspired and written by the disciples of Jesus'
He again smiled and said:
Mr. Joseph, if the Bible is the Book of
the disciples and of Jesus, how would you account for the differences in
the Book, if it is an inspired word of God. Does not the Catholic Bible
Duay contain some books which the Protestant version does not own?
Have you read what Mr. Wilson says
about the Bible, in his introduction to the 'Diaglot' published by the
Watch Tower Society?
"If it had not been published by kingly
authority it would not now be venerated by English and American
Protestants, as thought it had come direct from Cod. It has been
convicted of containing over 20,000 errors. Nearly 700 Creeks MSS. are
how known and some of them very ancient whereas the translator of the
common version had only the advantage of some 8 MSS none of which was
earlier then the tenth century.
"Is not the Bible based upon only 8
manuscripts whereas there are 700 manuscripts now available? If what is
contained in all such manuscripts is also the inspired word of (God, why
were these manuscripts left away? In view of all these facts brought to
your light, if you still believe in the Bible as the inspired word of
God, you may do so but you can't expect the whole world to do it. If you
make a serious and an impartial study of the Old and the New Testaments,
you will find in them the amount of blasphemies which the Jewish mind
has fabricated against Lot, David, Noah and Abraham who were the Holy
Apostles of God viz:
Gen. 9:20 "And Noah began to be a
husbandman, and he planted a vineyard."
And he drank of the vine, and was
drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the
nakedness of his father, and told his two breathren without.
"And Shem and Japheth took a garment,
and laid it upon their father; and their faces were backward, and they
saw not their father's nakedness."
Gen. 19:36 "Lot committing adultery
with his own daughters"
II. Sam, 11:4 David taking possession
of his neighbor's wife.
I asked, "What? Do you Muslims believe
in the prophets of God other than Muhammad to be totally sinless and
holy?"
He answered me by reciting to me the
following verses of the Holy Quran.
2:136 "Say (O Muslims): We believe in
Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed
unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and
that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the prophets
received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them,
and unto Him we have surrendered."
"The Apostle (Muhammad) believes in
what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and so do the believers,
(i.e. Muslims) they all believe in Allah (God) and his angels, His book
(the different holy scriptures) and His Apostles; we make no difference
between any of His apostles."
The following verse of the Holy Quran
informs us of the fact that Prophets were raised by God, among all
nations in all parts of the earth.
35:24 "There is not a nation but a
Warner has gone among them."
It convinced me that Islam alone, is an
all comprehensive faith which recognizes all other religions and which
contains in it a perfectly harmonious integration of all the good, found
partly in the other religious orders of the world. The sacred book of
Islam i.e. the Holy Quran, is the final exposition of the Divine Truth
in its Perfection which was revealed at different times, through the
other heavenly scriptures, in parts suiting the various evolutionary
levels.
The above verses of the Holy Quran bear
clear of conception by the human minds. The limitation testimony to the,
fact that, as one of the fundamentals of the human mind of the different
ages, did not of his Faith, every Muslim has to believe not only allow
even prophets like Jesus to speak out the whole in the Holy Prophet
Muhammad but in all the other of the truth. Jesus had to depart with
many things prophets as truthful and holy and should not make yet to be
told to his people. (John. 16:14). Jesus had to tell his people to wait
until the advent of the Spirit of Truth to disclose the whole of the
Truth. (John 16:13)
I was further impressed by the
Universal aspect of the religion Islam.
Every answer from the Lecturer was with
an unchallengeable authority and with an unbreakable argument. I was
awakened to differentiate between genuine truth and the fabrications of
falsehood and to know many new factors to which I was blind all these
years. But I did not know how to reconcile the dawn of true knowledge of
truth with my original blind dogmatic belief and my belonging to the
Christian faith any longer. I wanted to find out some failure on the
part of the Lecturer to answer satisfactorily some questions or the
other, so that I may have some excuse, be that even a false one, to
maintain my position in the Christian faith.
The Lecturer continued after some time
with the question:
"Shall I ask you something if you do
not mind answering it for my information?"
I said: 'Yes'.
He asked: "Do you think Jesus to be a
son of God or God himself?"
I said: 'Jesus, according to the
Christian belief is God Himself in the form of His Son.'
He asked: Can you ever conceive anyone
to be the immortal God and at the same time be a mortal (Man) to be
caught in the hands of other mortals to suffer death?
"Can anything be high and at the same
time low, black and at the same time be white? Can there be darkness and
the same time light? What philosophy is this?"
The Lecturer continued saying:
"Do you ever consider that there is one
other question confronting the doctrine of the Trinity which needs to be
answered by every Trinitarian that if any three different beings which
are three different entities, are also at the same time One, with
absolute unity in all the perfect sense or meaning of Oneness, what is
the common control which makes them remain three and also be one at one
and the same time? If there be any factor of such a wonderful and
inconceivable phenomena causing this amazing effect, then that supreme
causative power, which controls the number and the unity, will alone be
the Omnipotent God and not any one of the three which are only the
controlled components.
"Besides, there arises another
problematic question which a believer in the Trinity will have to answer
i.e. as to whom is that controls or determines the splitting of one into
only three different others, to be neither more nor less in number?
There must be some cause for this controlled effect and that the
causative factor acting supreme over three will be the Omnipotent God
and not any one of the three which will only be the effect of the
supreme controlling cause.
"Similarly, will arise the question,
what is the causative power which affects the three to be only one when
joining together and not divided into many groups of beings and if there
be any such cause, that supreme controlling cause will be the Omnipotent
God and not anyone of the three which will only be the subservient one.
Under any circumstances no sensible man
can ever reasonably believe in any effect whatsoever without some
causative factor effecting it.
"However the Holy Trinity is only a
problematic doctrine created by the Christian Church which no logical
reasoning can ever prove true."
I had to helplessly agree to the views
of the Lecturer for I could not now reasonably believe in the existence
of anything being itself and at the same time being its own opposite.
"I would like you, Mr. Joseph" said the
Lecturer, "to ponder a little over the belief that Jesus being God
Himself or the son of God, was so terrified at the impending
crucification that he shouted:
Matthew 27:46 "Eli, Eli, Lama
Sabachthani" (My God, My God, hast thou forsaken me?)
"What philosophy is that? If Jesus was
God Himself, does it mean that God was forsaken by God Himself and can
that be God who felt hopeless and shouted to be rescued?
"Your Bible itself, Mr. Joseph, reports
that the son of God was forsaken by his father (God) in which case the
forsaken son automatically and quite naturally forfeits his personal
merits as a son and his relationship of being a son to his father. What
do you say? Of what profitable use can the attachment to a forsaken son
be? Mr. Joseph, please tell me."
I was struck dumb - I did not know what
to say and what to do with the faith I already possessed as a staunch
Christian.
"Besides," the Lecturer continued: "Do
you think Jesus to be God Himself when he falls down crying, praying to
someone else to remove the cup of death by crucification?"
I asked:
"Alright Sir, how do you reconcile the
violence used by the Prophet of Islam to his being an Apostle of God?"
Immediately came the reply from the
Lecturer.
"Please, Mr. Joseph, quote a single
instance from the whole life history of the Holy Prophet Muhammad to
show that he has ever committed any unprovoked aggression or any single
instance of his taking the least initiative in attacking any single
soul. Each expedition of a battle he led or he allowed was only in
self-defense. Had he not defended as he did, today his advent in this
world and his teachings about the truth about God which the world has
learnt only through his holy mission, would have become legends of
ancient times full of blasphemies for you and for me, only to be read in
story books and thus be deluded by falsehood for all times. The Bible
does not preach self-defense. The Bible only preaches self-surrender to
the extent of handing over everything of one's possession when anything
which was in one's hand has been taken away by any aggressor. Does any
Christian power follow this?
"Apart from the political history of
the Christian nations of Europe do you not remember the inhuman methods
employed by Christendom to spread its faith?"
I was ashamed to hear what has been
reported and I had to listen quietly to the records of the disgraceful
conduct of the Christians. I, at last, ventured to ask one more
question. 'There is the doctrine of atonement or expiation of sins of
men through the blood of Jesus. Jesus having paid the price of the sins
of man i.e. he who believes in Jesus is cleansed and saved. Have you any
such accommodation in Islam?'
The Lecturer smiled and replied:
"My friend, the greatest of God's gifts
to man is common sense. If man forfeits it of his own accord, then none
can help him.
"First let me know if this doctrine
appeals to reason and common sense. A, for example, a Christian by faith
i.e. a believer in Jesus Christ as his Savior, plunders the house of B
and the members of B's family. Does sense or logic agree to A being let
off unpunished by any law, particularly the Law of the All Just Lord of
the Universe, simply because A accepts Jesus as his Savior?"
I had to say, 'No'. Because, to say
otherwise would mean I forfeit my common sense and go against reasoning.
He continued:
"There is one very grave aspect of the
doctrine of atonement through the blood of Jesus i.e. when we pay for a
thing, the thing becomes our own and the previous owner of the thing
forfeits all his claim over it for the price he has already received. Is
it not?"
I said, 'Yes'.
Then he said "If the sins of man have
been paid for, God has no right to punish any sinner every sinner who
merely believes in Jesus would be free to do anything in the world which
his brutal passion dictates him to do, for God his Lord has no right
whatsoever even to question any sinner, for Jesus has met the cost of
all his sins. Can this ever be sensible logic or common sense? Can this
doctrine help life on earth to continue for one moment in peace and
security?"
He continued: "Please remember, Islam
wants every individual to be kept bound by his being answerable with his
individual responsibility to virtue against vice, in the interest of his
own individual life as well as the interest of the collective life in
this world, himself as a member of not only the human race but also of
the creation of the Lord as a whole. Islam continuously invites and
encourages man towards righteousness with the promise of the blissful
life in the hereafter and repeatedly warns him against vice and the
consequent chastisement from the All-just Lord.
The Holy Quran repeatedly warns saying:
2:28 "And be on your guard against a
day when one soul shall not avail another in the least, neither shall
intercession on its behalf be accepted nor shall they be helped."
17:15 "Whoever goes aright, for his own
soul does he go aright; and whoever goes astray, to its detriment only
does he goes astray; nor can the bearer of a burden bear the burden of
another, nor do we chastise until we raise an apostle."
49:13 "O ye men! Surely we have created
you of a male and female, and made you tribes and families that you may
know each other; surely the most honorable of you with Allah is the one
among you most careful (of his duty) surely Allah is knowing, Aware."
"While threatening man with grievous
punishment in recompense for his evils, the Holy Quran discloses also
the infinite mercy of the All-Merciful Lord who does not want man,
however, much a sinner the individual be, to be totally dejected or
hopeless of the merciful pardon from Him. The only condition for the
pardon he needs, being the sinner's repentance against his vices, with
his intention of amending his conduct in the future, and turning whole
heartedly to obedience and gratitude to the All-Merciful Lord for His
Infinite Grace.
"For goodness sake, tell me, Mr.
Joseph, which do you think is reasonable and sensible, either making man
intoxicated and careless against sinning, i.e. making him unreasonably
confident of the price of his sins as having already been paid by
someone or alerting with his commitment to virtue against vice, i.e.
keeping him warned of the natural consequence of getting punishment by
the All-Just Lord, against any misconduct or disobedience?"
I felt that I had that day understood
the hollowness of the doctrine of atonement upon which is built the
whole edifice of the Christian faith. The divine mercy of the Lord
dawned upon my heart, a new light of the divine guidance. I thanked God
for liberating me from the clutches of the grossly misleading dogmatic
doctrine and leading me to Islam which I have myself found through an
impartial enquiry that it is the Right and the Straight Royal Road to
Salvation which the All-Merciful Lord Himself has shown man through this
Last Apostle Muhammad, may peace be on Him and his divinely chosen
descendants.
When I disclosed my acceptance of the
true arguments advanced by the Lecturer and thanked him, he told me:
"Mr. Joseph! You must thank God for
blessing you with the fulfillment of His merciful promise to every
sincere seeker of truth!"
The All-Merciful Lord by His infinite
mercy has fulfilled His merciful promise to give mankind the everlasting
guidance through the Holy Prophet Muhammad who would abide in his
guidance for all times. (John, 16:14)
In Muhammad was fulfilled the divine
promise for the Prophet, and the promise of the Lord to raise Twelve
Princes in the seed of Ishmael was fulfilled in God's raising the Twelve
Holy Imams in the family of the Holy Prophet Muhammad who is the
divinely chosen issue of Ishmael.
Gen. 17:20 "And as for Ishmael I have
heard thee, Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful, and I
will multiply him exceedingly, Twelve Princes shall he beget and I will
make him a great nation."
All these Holy Imams were of the purest
character and of an undoubtedly godly conduct and though they never
received any education from any other mortal in this world, all of them,
like the Holy Prophet Muhammad, were the wonderful stores and the
Divinely caused fountainheads of knowledge to enlighten the world with
the true knowledge about the Lord of the Universe.
Eleven of these Twelve divinely
commissioned Imams or Guides lived as the perfect models of pure
humanity in complete resignation to the Divine Will and all of them were
martyred. If any one wants to see a perfect model of a man surrendering
his all, most willingly suffering the worst and the most painful
affections in the way of the Lord severed, one must see the Holy Imam
Hussain at Karbala.
The world will find Hussain not
shouting, "Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani"
Or desiring in the least the removal of
the cup of death, but drinking it cheerfully, glorifying the Lord in his
last thanks-giving prayers while he was being butchered in the most
heartless way.
As the promise of God to give mankind a
Prophet to abide for ever has been recorded in the Old Testament this
Great Sacrifice has also been prophesied in, Jeremiah 46:10 "For this is
the day of the Lord God of hosts a day of vengeance, that he may avenge
him of his adversaries; and the sword shall devour, and it shall be
satiated and made drunk with their blood; for Lord God of Hosts hath a
sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates."
After coming across so many sane and
unbreakable arguments against the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and also
about many other fundamentals of Christian belief, I only wondered how
such an unreasonable faith could attract such a huge number of people in
the world. Once I found my father returning home very happy and
immediately as he arrived he called me and said:
'You will be glad to know my dear son
that, today I got 109 souls into our fold. At the baptism of such a big
number in one day the Rev. Father, the Chief of Our Mission praised my
services very much and has increased my salary as well my traveling
allowance and has awarded me with a token reward of Rs. 109
corresponding to the number baptized through my efforts.'
I asked: "Who are they, father, who
were baptized today?"
The reply was: "They are from five
surrounding villages. There are men, women, and children, 109 souls
together."
I asked: "Are they all educated?"
The reply was: "No. They are the poor
people of the cherries (slums). They are only laborers in the paddy
fields of their villages."
I asked if they had understood fully
their undertaking as converts to the Christian faith. Would every one of
them stand any cross examination against their decision to leave the
folds they were in, and their joining the Christian belief?
The reply was: "What do you mean? I
told you they are all uneducated poor illiterates; laborers from the
slums. The group consists of men, women, and children. Now, I will have
to go there every day and coach them up in the doctrine of our faith."
On hearing this I smiled, and seeing me
smiling my father asked: "Why do you smile, Joseph? What is the matter?"
I said: "Nothing father! I do not see in this mass conversion, any
matter of pride or pleasure which any true religion or any genuine or
reasonable faith can claim for itself, for it is nothing but exploiting
the illiteracy and ignorance of the poor laborers. It is leading the
mentally blind ones into something which they neither know nor
recognize. Do you think father that any sensible man can reasonably be
proud over his getting some illiterate men, women and children to accept
his own ideals and justifiably claim the least merit or value to his
thoughts?"
"While the entry into a faith like
Islam is effected only after a detailed study and enquiry by the learned
ones with perfect conviction, we Christians pride over our success in
swelling up our ranks by mass conversions of illiterate laborers, who,
by circumstances, are forced to accept the Christian doctrines without
knowing what they do is right or wrong? An ignorant mind is like a blank
sheet, one can draw upon it whatever one's fancy chooses and once the
inscription is made to be settled upon such raw material, any artist can
pride over the plate having any particular design of his own. If today
to win the sympathy of the ignorant masses, we boast before our
illiterate converts of our humanity and self sacrifices in the cause of
the spread of our faith, will the outer world also forget the Edict of
Milan, father, and will all the records of the history of the brutal
outrages that Christendom committed against the poor helpless Jews, in
its own passionate eagerness and anxiety to swell its ranks, all
together totally vanish?"
I continued: "If you kindly permit me
father, I would like to know from you if this Bible in your hands is to
be merely read memorized and preached to the others or is it to be acted
upon in our daily life? If it is to be acted upon will you kindly show
me father, if the Christian world could ever practice the principle of
turning the other cheek also if one is already smitten? Could any
sincere Christian till now, give away his shirt when his coat was taken
away?
Will you, father, surrender our whole
house if any body invades our residence and takes possession of any of
the rooms in these premises? If the Christian powers of the world really
believe in this doctrine of self surrender, why do they maintain their
military and the police forces? Kindly tell me, father, if there is any
earthly use of merely believing in any golden ideals which can only
adorn the pages of some books and which can only be preached but never
practiced. Why should we not reasonably accept the doctrine of
self-defense taught by Islam and the principle of pardoning our
offenders if they are repentant?
For goodness sake let me know, father,
how can three different ones at the same time be an absolute one, both
numerically and also in the essential nature of perfect unity?
On what reasonable grounds can the one
who is forsaken by God, be God Himself and if Jesus is to be believed as
the son of God what claim to the relationship with his father can a
forsaken son have?
"What right has Christendom to claim
any truth in it when its spread was caused by the inhuman atrocities
committed by the Christian forces against the poor helpless Jews? The
conduct of the brutal outrages committed in the holy name of Christ, has
been fully reported even by the Christian authorities on Edict of Milan
and by the world renowned Christian Scholar Gibbon in his famous work,
'The Decline and the Fall of the Roman Empire."
The Doctrine of Atonement through the
blood of Christ, will naturally attract those sinner who have sinned and
who do not want to give up sinning under the protection of the doctrine
that the price of their sins has already been paid away and however much
worst sinners they themselves choose to be, they will not in the least
be chastised for their heinous crimes, for, after Jesus having paid away
for the sins of man, God must have forfeited His claim to punish the
sinners thereafter.
There are many such things father which
need a dispassionate study and an impartial judgment.
"I tell you father, that whatever be
the consequences and whatever misfortune may afflict me, I as one, have
decided not to sell away or forfeit my conscience and common sense to
the belief in such unreasonable dogmatic doctrines. I have embraced
Islam, and if you do not get angry with me and kindly allow me to
explain to you the details of my enquiries, I will do it whenever I am
wanted to do so I do not like any thought or belief of mine to be
swallowed by anyone by force, for the religion Islam, which I now openly
declare to have embraced, enjoins that there shall not be any compulsion
in the matter of faith as the truth has been revealed against
falsehood."
To my utter surprise I found my father
fully attentive to my exposing my personal views and convictions and at
the end he said:
"Son! Do not think that your father is
a fool I have been occasionally confronted with such ideas during my
life whenever I had the occasion of discussing religion with my Muslim
friends. But today the sincerity and the boldness with which you expose
your own convictions make me bold to decide about the matter. I shall
tell you later but, for God's sake keep this matter strictly confined to
you. Otherwise be sure we will be thrown out into the street as
destitute."
A few days later my father had a long
talk and he decided to declare himself a Muslim. The details of our
sufferings and the social persecution we had to pass through is a
history by itself.
I, now, for the information and
guidance of every seeker after Truth, openly declare the actual findings
of my sincere enquiry that Islam is not only the last of the mighty
religions which had revolutionized the world and changed the destinies
of nations, but it is also the perfect and all inclusive faith which
contains in itself all the good, found partly in all other religions
which had preceded it. One of the most distinguishing and striking
characteristics of Islam is that it requires of its followers to believe
that all the religions of the world that preceded it were revealed by
God for the respective people of those ages.
It is one of the fundamentals of this
faith that its followers must believe in all the Prophets who were sent
into the world before the Holy Prophet 'MUHAMMAD' as truthful and
sinless.
Muhammad is the name of the Holy
Prophet through whom all this comprehensive Faith was revealed in its
complete or perfect form and meaning, for humanity as a whole for all
times. It is the West that named this Faith as Mohammadanism on the
fashion of Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism and
Hinduism. Otherwise the name of this religious order is already given in
its book the Holy Quran as ISLAM as quite opposed to the method of
naming the order after its founder, the founder of Islam himself is
called a MUSLIM as any other believer. As the various prophets preached
this same Truth among different nations at different times in different
languages, every Apostle of God is spoken of in the Holy Quran as a
Muslim.
Thus I have found, beyond all doubts
that Islam is the religion which humanity needs for its progress in all
spheres or aspects of its material as well as Spiritual life, to earn
Salvation in the end.
A Muslim has to believe in all the
prophets as truthful and sinless and their holy books as the true word
of God, revealed for the people and for the age, and also believes in
Muhammad as the last of the apostles of God and his book i.e. the holy
Quran as the last of the revealed Word of God to abide forever.
In short, a Muslim embraces, through
the holy Quran. Every beauty in every religion, and turns his face from
that which has been added to the religion of God by man, and that is
Islam.
With the truth sufficiently explained,
will not every one of us love it? Or will not every one of us embrace
it?
This solemn declaration I make just to
be helpful to those who sincerely desire to know the Truth which they
need for themselves to live the life in this world to reach the blissful
destination which is called salvation.
None can ever deny that there can never
be any other way to please God than completely surrendering ourselves to
His will, an act which is called ISLAM.
Thus the promise of the Lord to
Abraham's seed was fulfilled in the Advent and success of the Holy
Prophet in establishing the Truth for all times:
New Testament Acts: 3: 22-25
"For Moses truly said unto the fathers,
a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your breathren,
like unto me, him shall ye hearken-in all things whatsoever he shall
stay unto you."
"And it shall come to pass, that every
soul which will not near that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the
people."
"Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel
and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise
foretold of these days."
"Ye are the children of the Prophets,
and of the Covenant which God made with our fathers saying unto Abraham.
And in thy seed shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed."
I once again make it openly known that
this true and sincere declaration of some facts is meant for not anyone
who does not like to know anything against his fixed belief, but for
those free thinkers who are seriously busy in search of the Truth and
are ready to acknowledge it irrespective of the quarter or the agency
through which it manifests.
Let me conclude with my sincerest
thanks and gratitude to the merciful Lord for I have realized the
fulfillment of His merciful promise to guide aright those who sincerely
seek the truth. By: S. Ghaffan |